Kashamu: CSO Warns against Undermining Nigeria’s Sovereignty

Adebiyi Adedapo The African Civil Liberty Committee on Rendition (ACLCR), a civil society organisation, has described an alleged plans by the United States government to abduct senator-elect, Kashamu Buriji, to face American law courts as a threat to Nigeria’s sovereignty.

ACLCR Country Director, Mr. Sunday Philips, in a statement yesterday, described the alleged plan as undermining of the nation’s sovereignty, adding that it would amount to a direct affront to the Nigeria’s judiciary system.

“Nigeria has enough mechanism to take care of all infringements committed on or outside Nigerian shores and should be seen in its autonomous powers.”

He noted that the organisation’s decision to oppose the abduction attempt should not be seen as an obstruction of justice but a move to ensure that international conventions are respected, describing the plan as rendition.

“The hues and cries against plans to forcefully abduct him should not in any way be misconstrued to mean obstruction of justice. No one should have anything against extradition... This varies sharply from what those against Kashamu are proposing. They are working on extraordinary rendition or irregular rendition, which our earlier source described as “the government sponsored kidnapping and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one country to another.”

According to him, it is ironic that Kashamu has summarily been discharged by three British courts on same issue.