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Sen Kashamu risks jail as US A’Court orders his arrest

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Sen Kashamu risks jail as US A'Court orders his arrest

Senator Buruji Kashamu risks being jailed following a United States (US) court ruling that US security agents can arrest him in coordination with local authorities outside the US for alleged drug trafficking.

The story, a report published by Daily Mail, further disclosed that the US court gave the ruling as it rejected an appeal by Kashamu requesting it to stop his abduction by US authorities to face heroin trafficking charges.

However, the court in its ruling submitted that the senator’s arrest in collaboration with local authorities, will in no way be regarded as abduction.

Meanwhile, Kashamu who represents Ogun East Senatorial District, has described the US court ruling as a case of mistaken identity.

The lawmaker in a statement he released on Thursday in reaction to the US court ruling accused “some mischievous elements” of trying to twist a suit he filed in the United States of America to stop his abduction and forceful transportation to face trial.

According to the senator, two British courts had adjudicated upon the same case and found that it was a case of “mistaken identity”.

Kashamu said, “I asked my lawyers in the US to file the suit when I got wind of an evil plot to abduct me in 2015 which later happened between the 23rd and 28th of May, 2015, until there was a judicial intervention which ordered the US officials and their local collaborators out of my Lagos residence.

“It should be noted that there is no any extradition proceedings against me anywhere in the world. The last one they purportedly brought after the siege to my residence was dismissed by the Federal High Court, Abuja, on the 1st of July, 2015.

“So, the wicked interpretation that the latest ruling which was based on a suit I instituted against my abduction has set the tone for my extradition is totally unfounded, vexatious and malicious”, he stated.

Read also: Looters of Nigerian economy have returned over N18billion – FG

Prosecutors in Chicago prosecutors accuse Kashamu of heading a heroin trafficking ring in the 1990s, and the US Court of Appeals earlier in the week reportedly dismissed the senator’s complaint and upheld the ruling of the lower court.

The court said the attempt by US agents to arrest Kashamu in coordination with Nigerian authorities could not be termed “an attempted abduction”, as claimed by Kashamu.

A number of those indicted in the case with Kashamu have pleaded guilty but Kashamu maintains that his dead brother was responsible for the crimes he is being accused of.

He insisted the 1998 indictment by a grand jury in Chicago for conspiracy to import and distribute heroin in the US was a case of mistaken identity, adding that the prosecutors really wanted a dead brother, who closely resembled him.

The National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) had in May 2015 laid a six-day siege on his Lekki home but backed down from arresting him following a Federal High Court judge ruling against his arrest and extradition.

 

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