SAN FRANCISCO, January 26, (THEWILL) – A United States’ appeal court has upheld a ruling against a Senator, Buruji Kashamu, senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District, who is facing drug charges, saying he could be extradited to face trial in the US court.
Kashamu had in April 2015 asked a district court to put a hold on his extradition by US authorities as Chicago prosecutors accused the senator of heading a heroin trafficking ring in the 1990s.
But in its ruling on Monday, the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the complaint and upheld the ruling of the lower court saying the attempt by US agents to arrest Kashamu in coordination with Nigerian authorities could not be termed “an attempted abduction”.
Many of those indicted in the case had pleaded guilty but Kashamu had maintained innocence claiming that his dead brother was responsible for the crimes he was being accused of.
He insisted the 1998 indictment by a grand jury in Chicago for conspiracy to import and distribute heroin in the US was a case of mistaken identity, adding that the prosecutors really wanted a dead brother, who closely resembled him.
THEWILL recalls that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in May 2015 arrested Kashamu, then a senator-elect, in connection with the heroin deal.
He was placed under house arrest at his Lagos home but he got an order from a local court which prevented the planned extradition.
Meanwhile, counsel to Kashamu, Prince Ajibola Oluyede, has accused Nigerian media of ‘sensationalism’ saying the court ruling is but another chapter in the misinformation and deliberate falsification of facts.
He admitted that the action was initiated by Kashamu in 2015 before the attempted abduction saga occurred and was already pending in the District Court in Northern Illinois seeking to enforce the provisions of the Mansfield Act (a United States Law which forbids US law enforcement agents from carrying out law enforcement activities outside US territory).
“The judgment of the District Court not deal with the legality or otherwise of the act of those US agents but stopped at the threshold of consideration of the question whether the Mansfield Act could be the basis for complaint by an individual alleging illegal law enforcement activities in violation of that Act,” he said.
“The District Court’s answer to that question was that the Mansfield Act did not give an individual any cause of action but could only be enforced by a government or state. It is from that ruling that Senator Kashamu appealed to the Seventh Circuit whereupon the Seventh Circuit rejected the appeal.
“The media probably needs a stimulant to sustain their audience now that the drama of the US election is abating. But they should be careful to be accurate in their reporting in order not to transcend the bounds of decency and legality as we have seen in the reaction of some overzealous Nigerian journalists.
“It is disturbing that the media has ignored the implication of the US Seventh Circuit’s pronouncement concerning the capacity of the US government to carry out police operations in foreign territory in breach of International Law and the municipal law of the victim state; as was exhibited in the unlawful attempt to abduct a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Who knows who will be next?”
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