The death of Senator Buruji
Kashamu, who represented Ogun East Senatorial District at the 8th National
Assembly shocked everyone on Saturday. He died of the deadly Coronavirus in
Lagos at the age of 62.
Kashamu’s life had been that of
controversies, especially related to alleged drug cases which had seen the
Nigerian government trying to extradite him to the United States to face trial
on several occasions.
In 1998, Kashamu was arrested in
the United Kingdom on drugs-related charges after trying to enter the country
with $230,000 in cash.
He was acquitted and released in
2003. British authorities refused a US extradition request on drugs charges,
citing concerns about his identity, however Nigerian authorities announced
their intention to deport him to the US on multiple occasions.
Former President, Olusegun
Obasanjo, had warned that his ongoing freedom illustrated that “drug barons …
will buy candidates, parties and eventually buy power or be in power
themselves”.
The New York Post in 2015
reported that the man indicted in the United States for allegedly smuggling
heroin, in a case that was the basis for the TV hit “Orange Is the New Black,”
had been elected a senator in Nigeria.
Kashamu was little known before
he returned home in 2003 from Britain, despite a US extradition order, to
become a major financier of President Goodluck Jonathan’s party.
Kashamu had said he was “a clean
businessman” and that the 1998 indictment by a grand jury in the Northern
District of Illinois for conspiracy to import and distribute heroin in the
United States was a case of mistaken identity. He had said Chicago prosecutors
really wanted the dead brother he closely resembled.
A British court refused a US
extradition request in 2003 over uncertainty about Kashamu’s identity, freeing
him after five years in jail. He was found carrying $230,000 when he was
arrested.
In 2014, Chicago Judge Richard
Posner refused a motion to dismiss Kashamu’s case. The September 2014 decision
from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeal quoted the US Justice Department as saying
that “the prospects for extradition have recently improved” but noted that
“Given Kashamu’s prominence … the probability of extradition may actually be
low.”
In May 2015, the Nigerian drug
agents surrounded Kashamu’s home and placed him under house arrest. “The
operation was in line with the legal process of extradition,” the National Drug
Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA had said.
Nigeria’s Federal High Court
ordered the suspension of extradition charges and that was the end to Kashamu’s
house arrest and went to the Senate.
On May 7, 2020, Justice Okon
Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, restrained the federal government from
extraditing Kashamu, to the U.S. to answer drug charges.
Abang had held that neither the
federal government nor any of its agents could validly initiate extradition
proceedings against Kashamu in view of subsisting judgements and orders in
favour of the plaintiff, which had remained unchallenged.
Abang particularly noted that the
judgement delivered by the Federal High Court, Lagos on January 6, 2014 (in
suit No:49/2010) and another judgement of July 1, 2016 given by the Federal
High Court, Abuja (in suit No: 479/2015), which prohibited Kashamu’s
extradition on account of the U.S. drug allegation, were still subsisting.
In 2018, the National Executive
Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party approved the expulsion of Kashamu and
three others from the party for hobnobbing with the opposition.
They were alleged to have worked
with the opposition in Ekiti State to deny the PDP victory in the election. But
an High Court in Abuja in October, 2018 voided the expulsion.
Kashamu had also led a faction of
the PDP in Ogun State and contested the governorship election in 2019 after the
court declared that his faction was the authentic one, a judgement that did not
go well with the National Working Committee of the PDP. He lost the election.
Kashamu came fourth in that election won by Governor Dapo Abiodun.
Till his death on Saturday,
August 8, Kashamu’s life had been that of controversies. Many of his followers
recently deserted him and pitch tent with another faction of the party in Ogun,
which led to the rebirth of the PDP, and the emergence of Silkirulai Ogundele
as the new Chairman of PDP in Ogun.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com