FG’s appeal for my extradition in bad faith – Kashamu

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party and lawmaker representing Ogun East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Buruji Kashamu, has described the move by the Federal Government to appeal a court judgment stopping his extradition to the United States of America for drug-related offences as being in bad faith.
Kashamu said this in a statement on Saturday.
He said it was wrong for the government to claim through a lawyer, Emeka Ngige (SAN), that it was appealing the extradition judgement appeal through the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation when President Muhammadu Buhari was yet to appoint one.
In the statement by his spokesperson, Austin Oniyokor, Kashamu accused Ngige of seeking to divert attention from the illegalities being perpetrated in the name of the Attorney-General of the Federation and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in the bid to extradite him.
The statement by Kashamu on Saturday reads in full: “We have monitored media reports credited to Chief Emeka Ngige (SAN) in which he seeks to divert attention from the illegalities of the Attorney-General of the Federation ( AGF) and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency ( NDLEA) and to rehash the allegation that have been rejected by British Courts and recently by Nigeria Courts also.
“Emeka Ngige claims that these rejected allegations are the basis of an appeal he has filed against orders and judgments of the Federal High Court.
“The mischief is clear because no Notice of Appeal has been served on any party yet Ngige has released documents to the media which he claims are Notices of Appeal. This is clearly wrong.
“It is for this reason we question the authority of Emeka Ngige and Gboyega Oyewole to represent a non-existent AGF
“While Ngige is a well-known lawyer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Oyewole has represented the former President Olusegun Obasanjo in several cases in the past, including the N20billion libel case that Senator Kashamu withdrew recently.
“They were conscripted by the Chief Executive Officer of Heyden Petroleum, Mr. Dapo Abiodun, who was defeated by Senator Kashamu in the March 28, 2015 National Assembly election.
“Contrary to the lies being peddled in the media, information available to us revealed that the two lawyers were not briefed by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice – at least as at Friday when they appeared in court. If they say they were, we challenge them to produce the authorisation and evidence of payment made to that effect. We do know that they were hired by Abiodun, who is desperate to get through the back door a mandate he could not get in a free and fair election.
“It has also come to our knowledge that in the absence of an Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the said Abiodun has been mounting pressures on the Permanent Secretary and Solicitor-General of the Federation, Mr. Abdullahi Yola, to give the brief to the APC lawyers. Abiodun offered to pick their bills.
“Thankfully, as an honourable and God-fearing man, the Solicitor-General of the Federation has not given in to Abiodun’s pressures when these lawyers gate-crashed into the matter and sought to ambush the court.
“We have read the comments credited to Ngige that “Kashamu was not tried before the British courts. He only went through extradition proceeding and the extradition application failed based on the facts before the court. Now, that does not and cannot constitute a bar on further extradition proceeding or trial for drug crime in any other country or other court.”
“That is Ngige’s legal opinion which has been rejected by the Nigeria courts. In the absence of an appeal, such comments could be contempt of court.
“In any event, Chief Ngige has evidently not read the judgements he is interpreting. The court did not merely find that the evidence was not enough; the court positively found that it was another person (not Senator Buruji Kashamu) that committed the offence and proceeded to describe the person in its judgement. It is that person the US authority wants not Senator Kashamu.
“That is clearly an obstacle to any further proceedings against Senator Kashamu. If a court found that Emeka Ngige was never governor of Anambra State but it was his brother, Chris Ngige, would it not be stupidity for someone who did not appeal against that finding to come back again to say he believes that Emeka Ngige was governor of Anambra State?
“Ngige is evidently pursuing a political agenda not a legal brief in making those comments.”