Adoke’s friend leaked plot to abduct me – Kashamu

Ogun-East senator-elect, Buruji Kashamu, has said that he got wind of the plot to abduct and take him to the United States to face charges of illicit drugs through a friend of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN).

He said this in a petition dated April 15, 2015, to the National Human Rights Commission, seeking the commission’s intervention.

Buruji said in the petition that the plot to forcibly extradite him to the US was leaked to his lawyer, Ajibola Oluyede, by another lawyer (name withheld) who was Adoke’s friend while on a flight from Lagos to Abuja.

According to Oluyede, who authored the petition on behalf of Kashamu, the friend of Adoke witnessed an occasion when former President Olusegun Obasanjo was mounting pressure on the minister to extradite the senator-elect to the US.

The petition read in part, “On a flight to the Federal Capital, Abuja, from Lagos sometime in October 2014, a colleague and friend of our principal partner, R. A. Oluyede, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria who is also very close to the AGF, informed Mr. Oluyede of the tremendous pressure that Chief (Olusegun) Obasanjo was bringing upon the AGF for the extradition of Prince Kashamu and that, in one discussion between the AGF and Chief Obasanjo, witnessed by him (the SAN), Chief Obasanjo had boasted that he was making arrangements with some US officials in the region to have Prince Kashamu abducted and flown in a private plane to the US.

“He advised that Mr. Oluyede tells Prince Kashamu, known widely to be his client, to be very careful. Prince Kashamu’s enquiry about this information revealed that indeed, there had been moves made by US officials within the region to secure the assistance of the Head of the INTERPOL division in Nigeria, Mr. Solomon Arase, a Deputy Inspector General of Police, (now acting Inspector General of Police) for the arrest and delivery to the US officials of Kashamu for transport to the US without following the due process required by the Nigeria Extradition Act.”

Kashamu had since sued the Chairman, National Drug Laws Enforcement Agency and 11 others to court over the alleged plot to extradite him to the US.

In a fundamental rights enforcement action he filed before a Federal High Court in Lagos, the senator-elect is seeking a declaration that the move to abduct and forcibly transport him to the US amounted to a violation of his right to liberty, freedom of association and freedom of movement as protected by sections 35, 40 and 41 of the Constitution

But Adoke, in an exclusive interview with one of our correspondents, said the alleged extradition move only existed in Kashamu’s imagination. Adoke said the PDP chief was only being pre-emptive in his approach to the matter because there was no extradition request concerning him currently before the Federal Government.

The minister also explained that if and when such a request was received, the government would only send such to the court for a decision to be taken.

He said, “Kashamu is only being pre-emptive by his claims. His claims are based on imagination. As of now, there is no extradition request on his case before the Federal Government. Even when such request is received, it is not the Federal Government that will take a decision on it. Such request is usually forwarded to the court for a decision to be taken.’’