Following the Court of Appeal’s judgment,
delivered on Friday, May 4, 2018, in which the coast was cleared for the
federal government to extradite a serving Senator, Prince Buruji Kashamu to the
United States of America (USA) to face trial in a drug related offence, the
embattled senator is now accusing a lawmaker of complicity.
Kashamu, in an emotion-laden
statement he signed and made available on Thursday opined that
his travails emanated from his voyage into politics in 2009, adding that the
governorship ambition of a House of Representatives member, Ladi Adebutu was
responsible for his present ordeal.
He said the drug related offence
he is facing in the US has been settled by the British Judiciary, which he
described as an arbiter between him and US government.
“As most of you are probably
aware, this issue began about 21 years ago. But thankfully, the upright British
judiciary, which served as an arbiter between me and the United States
Government, found that it was a case of mistaken identity. And that was the end
of the matter or so, I thought.
“When I joined politics in 2009,
my opponents and detractors began to look for what they could use to tarnish my
image, hence the continuous noise, especially in every election year.
“The recent onslaught against me
came about following the decision of the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal
which allowed an appeal against the judgment given in my favour at the lower
court in a fundamental Human Rights enforcement suit.
“Candidly, I never knew that
someone’s ambition to be Governor could degenerate to the extent of calling for
the head of another person. I am referring to none other than Ladi Adebutu’s
governorship ambition and the desperate moves to sink me by all means.
“During my senatorial election,
Ladi Adebutu never campaigned for me or with me. During the election, they
bought votes against me but God proved His mightiness. When they failed in
their attempt to stop my election, they went to influence the Election Petitions
tribunal. But, the Almighty God again upturned the evil verdict at the Court of
Appeal.
“Not done, they went to file a
suit at the Federal High Court, Lagos, using a group known as Advocacy for
Integrity and Economic Development (AIED), against me and the U.S. Government,
asking a foreign government to come and take me away even when the same people
failed in their bid to do so in a foreign land over 20 years ago. As God would
have it, the suit was dismissed by the Court.
“When the Office of the AGF
appealed the judgment in my favour in 2015, they took interest in the appeal
and influenced the judgment. To show their hands in the whole matter, they sent
a representative to the court to ensure the judgment went as they had planned.
Thank God, I have a right of appeal to the Supreme Court which I have
exercised.
“Now, the same Adebutus are going
about hiring Igbo and Hausa lawyers to pressurise the Honourable
Attorney-General of the Federation to write the U.S. to come and kidnap me
under the guise of extradition.
“These are people I have been
good to. I was the one the Almighty God used to help Ladi Adebutu to realise
his over 12 years ambition to go to the House of Representatives after his
brief stint in the aborted Third Republic. He rode on the back of the same
party structure that he now seeks to break.
“But I am comforted in the
knowledge of the fact that if I have done good to him and his family and they
seek to pay me back with evil on account of an ambition that is in the hands of
God which he never discussed with me.
“At their group’s meeting, which
was held yesterday, Ladi Adebutu, who just returned from a foreign trip,
boasted to all at the meeting that he and his father, Chief Kessington Adebutu
have spent a lot of money on my case and that by next week Wednesday or
Thursday, a fresh extradition process will begin against me and a warrant of
arrest will be procured.
“All I know no matter how rich or
powerful a man is, he can only try his best; he cannot be more powerful and
richer than God who created all of us and gave us all the things we think we
have. He alone has the final say. Human beings can only try. If God says yes,
who can say no? And if he says no, who can say yes?
“I strongly believe that as long
as the Almighty God rules and reigns over the affairs of men, I shall triumph
over all my enemies and those who do not wish me well. For, as the legendary
Dele Giwa said, “No evil deed can go unpunished. Any evil done by man to man
will be redressed, if not now, then certainly later, if not by man, then
certainly by God, for the victory of evil over good can only be temporary.”
“I have decided to write this for
posterity so that all the good people of Ogun State and our dear leaders and
elders – and indeed all Nigerians – can be adequately informed of all the
undercurrents relating to the noise in the media space and political circle”,
Kashamu posited.
Recall that the appellate court
in a landmark judgment voided and set aside all orders made by a Federal High
Court between 2014 and 2017 restraining the government from proceeding with the
extradition.
Justice Joseph Ikyeghi in his judgment
held that the orders granted Kashamu by Justice Okon Abang were “invalid,
nonsensical and unacceptable to laws” because they were based on hearsays and
speculations by Senator Kashamu.
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