The Federal Government of Nigeria
has told the Supreme Court that Prince Buruji Kashamu has been harassing it
with multiple court cases in a bid to frustrate execution of the extradition
request against him by the United States of America over alleged hard drug
trafficking offence.
The government complained that in
a desperate ploy to stop the extradition, Senator Kashamu has engaged in gross
abuse of court process by instituting multiple suits in different high courts
in the country on the same subject contrary to the provisions of the law.
The apex court has therefore been
asked to invoke section 22 of the Supreme Court Act to take over the cases and resolve
them along with the two pending appeals filed by Kashamu in Supreme Court in
2018.
In a motion on notice, the
Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, applied that since the multiple cases
centred on same subject and same parties, the court should apply the force of
law to stop the abuse of court process and harassment.
The multiple suits listed as an
abuse of court process are FHC/L/CS/930/2018 pending before Justice Chukwu
Aneke and FHC/ABJ/CS/530/2018 as well as FHC/ABJ/CS/536/2018 pending before
Justice Okon Abang at the Lagos and Abuja divisions of the federal high court.
Government recalled that two
other suits filed by Kashamu in 2014 on the same extradition matter and same
parties had travelled from high court to Court of Appeal and now pending before
the Supreme Court for final determination.
AGF claimed in the motion that
Kashamu was engaging in forum shopping against the law, desperately looking for
order of court that will favour him and urged the determination of all the
suits along with the substantive appeals.
Kashamu, in his opposition to the
motion, however, claimed that the new cases were filed based on fresh evidence
available to him that the federal government has applied for fresh extradition
request from the American government against him.
Kashamu had in 2014 ignited a
long drawn legal battle against government at the federal high court to thwart
the request of the American government that he be extradited to the USA to
answer criminal charges filed against him in respect of an alleged heroine drug
importation into the country.
Ten others said to have been
involved in the alleged drug offences were said to have been tried, convicted
and sentenced to various prison terms while Kashamu reportedly escaped to
Nigeria prompting the extradition request for him.
The Court of Appeal in Lagos had
in May last year upheld the appeal filed by the AGF and dismissed the two
judgments of high court granted in favor of Kashamu prompting his movement to
the Supreme Court.
In the pending main appeal, he
had in his notice of appeal to the Supreme Court complained that the Court of Appeal
erred in law by dismissing 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 decision of the Court of Appeal as they affected
him.
But the government, through the
AGF, had joined issues with him with a counter prayer that the Supreme Court
should uphold the judgment of the Court of Appeal which cleared coast for his
extradition.
The AGF claimed that the Appeal
Court was right in dismissing the two judgments of the High Court because they
were based on hearsay evidence of Kashamu before the court.
The AGF urged the Supreme Court
to allow the judgment of the Court of Appeal to enable the federal government
extradite the Senator to USA to prove his innocence or otherwise in the hard
drug trafficking criminal charges filed against him by the American government
since 2015 when he was alleged to have escaped to Nigeria.
Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN is
leading the legal team of the Senator while Chief Emeka Ngige SAN is leading
the Federal Government legal team at the Apex Court.
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