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.
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