Court dismisses extradition case against Senator Buruji Kashamu

A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed an
application for the extradition of Senator Buruji
Kashamu, to the United States of America to face illicit
drugs related offence trial.

The immediate past Attorney-General and Minister of
Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, had filed the application
on May 28, 2015 upon an alleged United State
government’s request asking the Nigerian government
to submit Kashamu for extradition.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole in his ruling held that he
lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit in the face of
the subsisting orders and judgments of the Federal
High Court, Lagos in Suit Nos. FHC/L/CS/49/2010 and
FHC/L/CS/508/2015 restraining the National Drug Law
Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Attorney-General
of the Federation (AGF) from entertaining any
extradition request from the United States of America
against Kashamu on the basis of the same allegations
from Kashamu had been exonerated by two British
court judgments.

Justice Kolawole noted that the various judgments and
orders of the British and Nigerian courts had not been
appealed or set aside by an appellate court.
Justice Okon Abang of the Lagos Division of the
Federal High Court had on June 8, 2015 nullified the
extradition proceedings which he said were initiated on
in contravention of an earlier order of the court.

Abang’s orders nullifying steps taken by the NDLEA and
AGF were affirmed by Justice Ibrahim Buba in a ruling
on June 23, 2015 who said subsisting orders and
judgements of the court must be obeyed until set aside
by a superior court.

Though Justice Kolawole expressed reservations on the
Lagos judgments, which he described as “wide and
perhaps wild,” he held that it was the exclusive duty of
the Court of Appeal to determine whether they were
valid or not.

Kashamu’s counsel, Mr. Ajibola Oluyede had on June
25, 2015, when the case came up for the first time,
urged the court to strike out the extradition application
in the light of the previous subsisting judgments.

However, Justice Kolawole, who cited several
authorities to the effect that the court is enjoined to
take judicial notice of developments related to a case,
noted that he had sometime in 2013 ruled in another
application seeking to register the two British court
judgments that even without registering same, the
judgments were enough shield for Kashamu against
any fresh extradition proceedings.

The judge then dismissed the suit, describing same as
an abuse of court process.
While the Kashamu’s legal team comprised of Dr. Alex
Iziyon (SAN), Mr. Ahmed Raji (SAN) and Prince Ajibola
Oluyede, the AGF’s team was led by a Deputy Director
in the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation,
Mr. M. I. Hassan.