Kashamu ignores drug trafficking case court appearance

NDLEA on Monday failed to bring the senator-elect for Ogun-East
senatorial district, Mr. Buruji Kashamu, before a Federal High Court,
Lagos, for extradition hearing despite a declaration by the agency
that he would be produced in court.
The agency, whose operatives had laid siege to Kashamu's residence in
Lagos since Saturday, said on Sunday that it had received a formal
extradition request on Kashamu from the United States government and
was coming to court to secure an extradition order on Monday.
Though Kashamu's lawyer, Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), had come to court
early in anticipation of the NDLEA's declaration, the agency, however,
failed to bring Kashamu to court.
Izinyon's colleague, Mr. Ajibola Oluyede, who later came to court and
appeared in chambers before Justice Ibrahim Buba with a fresh
application, said the NDLEA failed to produce a warrant of arrest it
claimed to have secured.
Though Oluyede moved his ex parte application in chambers and did not
oblige journalists any copy of it, our correspondent gathered that it
was an application to restrain the NDLEA from further laying siege to
Kashamu's house.
It was learnt that Buba, however, refused to make the order but asked
Oluyede to put the respondents on notice.
Oluyede, who later addressed journalists, said Buba had ordered the
Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke (SAN), and the
Chairman of the NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, to appear in court on Tuesday to
explain why they should not be jailed for contempt of court.
Oluyede, who accused Adoke and Giade of illegality, challenged them to
produce the US extradition request for Kashamu.
He said Kashamu and himself were ready on Monday and had waited in
vain till 12pm for the NDLEA to produce the warrant of arrest and
bring it to court, following which he had to come to court himself
with a fresh application.
There was no indication that NDLEA had filed any application before
the court and the NDLEA's case against Kashamu was not listed for
hearing on Monday before any judge.
But the agency's Head of Public Affairs, Mitchell Ofoyeju, in a
statement on Monday afternoon, said the agency could not bring Kashamu
to court because he failed to turn himself over to the operatives in
his house.
Ofoyeju said, "Senator-elect Buruji Kashamu has failed to appear in
court from his house where he is being closely monitored by the
operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
"The agency is working hard to ensure that he submits himself to the
due process of the law. His house remained cordoned off by
anti-narcotic officers pending his appearance in court."
But Oluyede claimed that an operative of the NDLEA came to the court
registry late Monday afternoon to secure a provisional warrant of
arrest.
According to Oluyede, the move was a confirmation that the NDLEA had
no extradition request for Kashamu from the US, adding that the move
was also a confirmation of Kashamu's alarm that the NDLEA was doing
the bidding of his political enemies.
The lawyer alleged that the embattled senator-elect's enemies planned
to abduct and forcibly take him to the US.
Oluyede said he was told by the leader of the NDLEA operatives manning
Kashamu's house that they were acting under the instruction of Giade,
whom he said was only given an oral instruction by Adoke to arrest
Kashamu.
The lawyer, in his fresh application, is seeking an order "directing
the respondents to immediately release the applicant unconditionally,
within two hours of making this order, from any arrest, detention or
other restraint whatsoever that the respondents might have instigated
or effected upon him."
Meanwhile, the premises of the Lagos Division of the Federal High on
Oyinkan Abayomi Drive, Ikoyi, was on Monday flooded with the loyalists
of Kashamu – in anticipation of his appearance in court.
The loyalists bore placards with inscriptions such as, "We want
Kashamu here in Nigeria," "Don't steal our joy from us," "Don't take
Kashamu away from his people." "Kashamu is not a drug baron." "'US,
mind your business," "We want due process of law," "Obj, leave Kashamu
alone," among others.
A former state secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun
State, who spoke on behalf of the peaceful protesters in court, Yemi
Akinwonmi, described the move to extradite Kashamu as "a reckless
display of power."
Akinwonmi, who challenged the NDLEA to present the extradition request
it claimed to have received from the US, insisted that the extradition
plot against Kashamu was purely political, adding also that the NDLEA
had not secured any warrant to arrest Kashamu.
Firstclassnewsline.net