For the second time in one week,
the Federal High Court in Abuja has refused to grant order of interim
injunction against the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) seeking to stop the two
respondents from their plan to extradite a serving senator, Prince Buruji
Kashamu to the United States for the purpose of trial in an alleged criminal
offence.
Justice Babatunde Quadiri on
Tuesday declined to issue injunction order against AGF and NDLEA when an
ex-parte application was argued before him by counsel to the Senator, Mr.
Olusegun Odubela SAN.
The judge said that in view of
the sensitivity of the issue in dispute, merit of justice will not be served if
the two respondents (AGF and NDLEA) are restrained on the extradition matter at
the ex-parte stage.
Instead, he ordered the senator
to put the AGF and NDLEA on notice on the pendency of the suit against them.
In his ruling on the motion,
Justice Quadiri ordered the three parties in the matter to maintain status-quo
pending the hearing on the originating summon filed by Kashamu against AGF and
NDLEA on his planned extradition.
Kashamu had, in the ex-parte
motion filed on May 18, prayed the court to restrain the AGF and NDLEA from
arresting, detaining and extraditing him to the United States of America (USA) to
face trial in drug-related charges.
The senator tendered a
publication of Punch Newspaper of May 13, 2018 entitled: “AGF requests for
extradition process on Kashamu” to establish an alleged fact that the AGF
office was making move on his extradition.
He also told the Judge that one
Shehu Abubakar, a staff in the AGF office was the person who informed him of
the concluded plan by AGF and NDLEA to extradite him based on the judgments of
the Court of Appeal delivered on May 4 which voided all restraining orders
granted in favor of Kashamu.
Kashamu argued that twice, the
courts in the United Kingdom have exonerated him on the alleged drug offence
and that his fundamental human rights will be breached if the AGF and NDLEA are
not restrained from taking further steps on the issue.
Justice Quadiri, while refusing
to restrain the AGF and NDLEA, said he would prefer to give fair hearing to
parties in the suit
The judge granted an order to
serve the originating summon on NDLEA in the Lagos office on the pendency of
the court action.
Meanwhile, hearing in the
originating summon has been fixed for September 24 this year.
Another Federal High Court in
Abuja had on May 30 refused to stop the execution of the two judgments secured
by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice against
the Senator representing Ogun East Senatorial district in the Senate.
The court had held that granting
the request by Kashamu to stay the appellate court decisions against him in an
ex-parte application will be against the rule of law and natural justice.
In a ruling on the first ex-parte
application filed against the AGF and the NDLEA, Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed
had rather asked the senator to put the AGF and NDLEA on notice in respect of
his fresh suit.
Justice Mohammed noted that since
what the senator sought in his originating summon was to prevent his
extradition, it will be unfair against the AGF and NDLEA to put the extradition
on hold without going into the merit of the whole issue as contained in the
originating summon.
The Judge therefore declined to
stop the implementation of the appeal verdict delivered on May 4 this year.
Kashamu had through his counsel,
Dr. Alex Izinyon SAN, in the ex-parte motion, argued that he was afraid and
apprehensive that the federal government may likely pick him and extradite him
to USA on the strength of the Court of Appeal Judgments.
He told Justice Mohammed that if
the extradition is executed via the judgments of the appellate court, his
fundamental right to freedom of liberty will be jeopardized.
The senior lawyer argued that if
Senator Kashamu is picked by the federal government through the NDLEA; no court
in Nigeria will have jurisdiction to save him because he (Kashamu) would have
been flown to a foreign country.
Izinyon SAN insisted that there
is likelihood now of his client being picked by the Federal Government and the
NDLEA, adding that his fundamental human rights will be breached in the
process.
But Justice Mohammed stood his
ground that his court was not persuaded to stop the appellate court judgment
but will rather wish that Kashamu puts both AGF and NDLEA on notice to show
cause on why the two judgments against the senator should not be stayed from
execution.
The Judge consequently fixed July
2 for the parties involved to appear before him.
The Court of Appeal had on May 4
cleared the coast for the federal government to extradite the senator, who had
engaged government in a long drawn legal battle since 2014.
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.
In a judgment in an appeal filed
by the AGF, Justice Joseph Ikyeghi 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.
The unanimous judgment was
prepared by Justice Ikyeghi and was delivered by Justice Yargata Nimpar.
The court held that the hearsay
that a former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was instigating the
extradition was not established under any law.
The appeal court said that an
affidavit deposed to by the senator on the issue was worthless and not in
compliance with Evidence Act because the senator himself claimed that he was
told by several persons who were not called to testify in court.
Justice Ikyeghi held that Justice
Abang in his two judgments on the issue erred in law by playing undue reliance
on affidavit that offended Evidence Act to give judgment against the Federal
government.
Consequently, the order of
injunction stopping the extraction process was voided and set aside.
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