Kashamu asks Supreme Court to stop his extradition to US
Embattled Senator Buruji Kashamu from Ogun state has asked the Supreme Court for an order of interim injunction stopping the federal government from extraditing him to the United States of America (USA) until the final determination of his appeal at the court.
Kashamu is wanted by the United States government for drugs related offences, but he has resisted the charges and the federal government move to extradite him, in a legal battle that started from the federal high court to the apex court.
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In a fresh move on Wednesday, Kashamu filed two separate motions at the Supreme Court praying the apex court to issue an order of injunction stopping the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami from extraditing him pending the final decision on his appeal.
The embattled politician in the motions fears that the federal government will ferry him to America for trial in an alleged hard drug trafficking offence unless the order of injunction is granted to shield him.
In the motions filed on his behalf by Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), Kashamu claimed that he has become aware that the federal government will pick him up and extradite him to America in spite of his pending appeal at the apex court
Specifically, the embattled senator pleaded with the Supreme Court to stop Malami and the NDLEA from executing two appeal court judgments delivered against him in 2018 on his extradition.
He said his appeals on the two judgments are pending before the Supreme Court and will be rendered nugatory if he is extradited to America before the hearing of the appeals.
Meanwhile, the motions are expected to be heard along with the substantive appeal by the apex court.
Kashamu had filed two appeals before the apex court, praying it to void the request of the American government that he be extradited to USA to answer criminal charges against him in respect of an alleged heroine drug importation into the country.
The attorney general of the federation and the NDLEA are the major respondents in the appeals in which the former senator is asking the Supreme Court to stop government from executing two judgments of the court of appeal granted against him.
He wants the apex court to reverse the two decisions in favour of the federal government delivered two years ago precisely on May 4, 2018 by the Court of Appeal, Lagos.
Kashamu said in his notices of appeal before the Supreme Court that the court of appeal erred in law by voiding and setting aside the two judgments of the federal high court which barred federal government from extraditing him to America.
The ex-senator is praying the apex court to set aside the decisions of the court of appeal as they affected him.
But, the federal government through the attorney general of the federation has responded with a counter- prayer that the Supreme Court should uphold the judgments of the court of appeal which cleared the coast for his extradition.
Malami claimed that the appeal court was right in setting aside the two judgments of the federal high court because they were based on hearsay evidence of Kashamu before the court.
He therefore, urged the Supreme Court to allow the judgments of the court of appeal stand to enable the federal government extradite Kashamu to the USA to prove his innocence or otherwise in the hard drug trafficking criminal charge filed against him by the American government since 2015 when he was alleged to have escaped to Nigeria.
