It’s in Kashamu’s interest to clear his name-in the US

Senator Buruji Kashamu, who, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was elected to represent Ogun East District in the Senate that was inaugurated yesterday, has been dogged by allegations by the US justice department that he had dealt drugs when he was resident there some twenty years ago. According to US officials, Kashamu fled the country as his trial on the alleged offence got underway. Last Monday, two separate orders issued by the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court stopped his arrest and planned extradition to the US by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for his trial there to resume.

Kashamu, through his lawyers, secured the orders from Justice Okon Abang and Justice Ibrahim Buba. While the former quashed the extradition proceedings and the provisional warrant of arrest issued by a Federal Court in Abuja, the latter restrained the NDLEA from arresting and arraigning the Senator in furtherance of the extradition charges.

Buba said the restraining orders were necessary so as not to get conflicting orders while cases were pending and judgments or orders are also subsisting, including committal proceedings. The matter was subsequently adjourned till June 19 for hearing.

The judge had on June 4 also fixed June 19 for hearing of the contempt proceedings filed by Kashamu against the Attorney General of the Federation, and the NDLEA Chairman.

Anti-narcotics agents had laid siege to Kashamu’s Lagos home on May 23 in an operation that lasted for about two weeks in a bid to arrest him, but failed for lack of a warrant, prompting a raft of court applications by Kashamu.

This legal back and forth has been going for years, since former President Olusegun Obasanjo disclosed Kashamu’s alleged fugitive status in the US. Apparently a grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois had issued the indictments on Kashamu for conspiracy to import and distribute heroin in the US. Kashamu has repeatedly taken pre-emptive measures over the years to forestall any attempt to extradite him.

He now claims that his US indictments were a case of mistaken identity, asserting that it was his late twin brother who committed the offence in question. In fact, he often points as evidence that a British court had rejected a US extradition request in 2003 over uncertainty about Kashamu’s true identity, but a Chicago judge, Richard Posner, though, refused a motion to dismiss Kashamu’s case last year.

The US government insists that Kashamu’s twin-brother story was a ruse, and that the Senator is the man officials have been looking for; US officials consider Kashamu to be a drug kingpin and the charges against him remain pending.

Several people indicted along with the senator were long ago tried and jailed but Kashamu, in the eyes of the US, is a fugitive from justice. This legal uncertainty is not good for Kashamu or for Nigeria. The fact that he is now a member of Nigeria’s upper legislative chamber while the issue lingers unresolved is a potentially serious blemish on the perception of Nigeria among its important international partners. So how long can Kashamu hold out, relying on a plethora of injunctions that, in themselves, smack of abuse of the judicial process, and the courts as being complicit? The notion is thus created that were such a serious case to have happened in Nigeria, it would long have gone cold without judicial closure.

It seems that the facts of the case are not in dispute, and that Kashamu was freed by a British court after four years in jail. If he believes he is innocent, there is no reason why he should not fly to the US, appear before a judge there and clear his name.

Until he does that his continued presence in the hallowed chamber would raise many moral issues for the entire National Assembly and the country’s leadership. What message would Nigeria be sending to the rest of the world?

It may be right to argue on the basis of pride and sovereignty of Nigeria and tell the US officials to stuff it; that would be a huge mistake. In an increasing globalised village, this would amount to foolish pride but a costly mistake. How can it be said that there is a Senator who cannot go abroad as part of his legislative duties? The Senator should not tarry but must make haste to the US and clear his name; he owes Nigeria no less.