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Nigerian Senator Still Faces Drug Charges in US
-Drug Agency Renews Efforts to Extradite Him
Buruji Kashamu, Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria representing Ogun State is still wanted in United States on drug trafficking charges pending since 1998 following the dismissal of his latest appeal by The Seventh Circuit of US Court of Appeals in Illinois.
In the court ruling issued January 23, 2017, the Justices affirmed earlier Circuit Court decisions that Kashamu must appear in US to answer the charges against him. Kashamu had in previous appeals sought to dismiss the US indictment “on the ground that the doctrine of collateral estoppel barred his prosecution by the United States” basing his argument on an unsuccessful US effort to extradite him from the UK. The Appeal Court however noted that “the English magistrate's refusal to authorize his extradition to the US had been based simply on the Justice department's inability to convince the judge that the person it was seeking to extradite was indeed Kashamu”. Thus, the court notes that because the British court did not rule on the innocence or guilt of Kashamu on the US charges, the ruling does not preclude him from answering the charges in US.
Meanwhile, Kashamu who seems to wield some measure of political power in Nigeria, has threatened to fight any effort to apprehend and extradite him. He was quoted by local newspapers as saying that lives would be lost if anyone attempted to physically apprehend him in Nigeria. According to the reports, Kashamu threatened to hire local thugs and vigilante as personal guards who would be prepared to kill his would-be abductors should the situation arise. He claims that Nigerian courts have granted him a perpetual injunction against agents of the Drug Law Enforcement Agency who attempted to apprehend him in 2015. The agency then began an extradition process in local courts.
Following news of the latest US Court decision, the agency in a public statement said it was still bent on pursuing extradition charges against Kashamu acknowledging that they were seeking a court order to vacate the injunction obtained by Kashamu which prevents them from effecting his arrest.
The impact of this latest US Appeal Court ruling (see Kashamu vs. US) remains to be seen but legal experts note that Kashamu's legal recourse has narrowed, stating that as the US courts have consistently ruled he still has to come and face the charges or be extradited to the US if he ever steps foot outside Nigeria or with the cooperation of the Nigerian authorities.
In this latest of several efforts, previously reported by Renafrique, Kashamu's lawyers, Scott Frankel and Robert Cohen, filed an action last year against the US Attorney General, The Secretary of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigations seeking an injunctive relief from the District Court barring the US authorities from seeking his extradition from Nigeria or any other country.
In the Court documents obtained and published by Renafrique, Kashamu sought a preliminary and permanent injunction based on information that he claims has led “him to believe that he will be subject to an imminent illegal abduction in Nigeria by United States law enforcement officials acting with Nigerian officials designed to transport him to the United States to stand trial on pending alleged drug offenses without going through the extradition procedures set forth in the extradition treaty between the United States and Nigeria and Nigerian law.”
He also “alleged that said abduction would be in violation of the right to be free from unlawful seizure and arrest and from the deprivation of life and liberty without due process of law, as set forth in the extradition treaty between the United States and Nigeria, and as set forth under the United States Constitution. “
Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA had shortly after Kashamu's election victory in 2015, barricaded his home in an effort to accede to long standing United States demands for his extradition to face charges in the US but the drug agency had not properly obtained warrants from a judge before proceeding with the arrest attempt and had to withdraw after days following a court order obtained by Kashamu. The NDLEA then proceeded to a Nigerian federal court seeking an extradition order as provided in Nigerian laws. The case is pending.
Kashamu had been indicted in Chicago for alleged drug trafficking since 1998 when he was named as the king pin of a drug ring busted by US officials which most of the operatives had been convicted and served various jail terms but Kashamu also identified as “Alaji” in the court papers remained elusive. The US case was never responded to and was never dismissed. Kashamu was once arrested and detained in the United Kingdom at US request but an attempt to extradite him to US failed because the English judge ruled that the US government had not presented enough evidence to convince him that Kashamu was Alaji. He had told the courts in England that it was his brother, not him, who was involved in the drug trafficking incident, a claim he still holds to. He left for Nigeria and climbed his way to the corridors of Nigerian power, joining then ruling People's Democratic Party and running and being elected Senator against the wave of change in loyalty from PDP to APC in his Yoruba speaking section of the country. He has also been embroiled in recent intra-party squabbles for control in his local state branch of his party favoring one faction of the party leadership against the state Governor's group.
While all this was playing out, Kashamu's story made its way into US homes via the Netflix hit show, “Orange is the New Black” based on the prison memoirs of Piper Kerman. Kashamu was also not idle, while riding the political high waters in Nigeria, his lawyers were busy navigating the US district courts to quash the case against him. In a 1999 motion before Honorable Judge Charles R. Norgle in the US District Court, Illinois he sought to quash his arrest warrant and dismiss the indictment for drug trafficking but the judge denied his motion on grounds that he should first submit himself to the US court system before seeking relief from the same justice system.
The US authorities opposing the motion had argued that since Kashamu was a fugitive to the legal system, he cannot seek relief from the same system. In the ruling the court ordered that:.” Kashamu's motion to quash arrest and to dismiss indictment is denied without prejudice. Kashamu is granted leave to refile the motion when he submits himself to the jurisdiction of the court.”
Kashamu never submitted himself to the US court's jurisdiction and remained in Nigeria, away from the clutches of US authorities but instead decided to take his case further to the US appellate court and lost. Kashamu instead sought relief again from the US Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit in which he again pleaded for an order of mandamus to dismiss the arrest and indictment. Kashamu argued in the appeal that the indictment should be dismissed on grounds that the district court lacked jurisdiction over him since he has never been in the US and that the government had not sought to extradite him in over eleven years which contravenes US sixth amendment provisions for a speedy trial. He also argued that his indictment should be discharged on grounds of the failed US efforts to extradite him from the UK. To further his case, he pleaded that the indictment has impeded his business and political career and has kept him from freely travelling outside Nigeria lest the US seeks his extradition from another country as it did unsuccessfully from UK in 1998.
On September 15, 2014, the Court of Appeal again ruled against Kashamu. The court denied his request for an order of mandamus nothing that Kashamu had had sixteen years since his indictment and only needed to appear in the district court to clear himself at any time within that long period but never did. The court noted further that “when a suspected criminal flees from imminent prosecution, becoming a fugitive before he is indicted, the statute of limitations on prosecuting him is suspended.” The latest ruling reaffirms that previous opinion of the court.
Kashamu therefore remains a wanted person in US and will still face trial anytime he steps on US soil.
@Nigeria Media in Diaspora