Nigeria

The US Wants Kashamu Extradition More Than Ever

Monday, April 20, 2015 at 5:00 PM by Khadijah Thabit

Senator-elect Buruji Kashamu should be in jail instead of senatorial seat – that’s what the US officials insist on, having started fresh moves for Kashamu extradition to face drug trafficking charges on American soil.

Buruji Kashamu has been evading these charges for several years, but the United States of America didn’t forget about him.

Recently the US seeking Kashamu extradition made new moves to get him to the American court.

Kashamu’s lawyer, Mr. Ajibola Oluyede, have filed a complaint to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), accusing former president Olusegun Obasanjo of being behind these moves.

Oluyede claimed that “Kashamu’s enquiry revealed that indeed there had been moves by US officials within the region to secure the assistance of the head of the INTERPOL division in Nigeria, Mr. Solomon Arase, a Deputy Inspector General of Police, for the arrest and delivery to the US officials of Kashamu for transportation to the US without following the due process required by the Nigeria Extradition Act”.

The lawyer also stated that “Mr. Kashamu’s informant revealed that Arase has confirmed that Donna Chabot approached him in January 2015. The said Ms Chabot is an attaché with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the American Embassy route Des Almedies BP, 49, Dakar, Senegal and requested that INTERPOL Nigeria assist in the abduction of Kashamu for the purpose of his forcible transportation to the US to face trial before Judge Norgel”.

Mr. Kashamu is indicted in the US on drug trafficking charges. He is accused of masterminding heroin smuggling and running a drug cartel.

In his defense Kashamu states that the crimes were committed by his brother who is now deceased. He also tried to clear his name mentioning EU visa issued to him by German authorities in 2009 as a proof that he is not the person that US law enforcement officials are looking for.

However, US insist that Kashamu remains on fugitive list and German visa was given to him because he misled German authorities with his identity having filed petition for a visa in 2009 for “Buruji Kashamu Shodipe” while he is indicted in the United States simply as Buruji Kashamu.

Judge Charles R. Norgle of the United States Northern District of Illinois Court has an extensive evidence base against Kashamu including his accomplices’ testimony referring to Kashamu as the mastermind of drug smuggling cartel.

One of the drug couriers, Ellen Wolters, allegedly had a romance with Kashamu, documented by law enforcement bodies along with details of smuggling operations.

Last year an appeal filed by Buruji Kashamu, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, was dismissed. The US Court demands extradition and continuation of the scandalous drug trafficking case.

As reported by PremiumTimes, the United States Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal filed by a close ally of President Goodluck Jonathan, to quash his indictment for smuggling drugs into the US. Circuit Judges Posner, Kanne, and Tinder noted that because of “very serious criminal charges against him” Mr Kashamu did not want to be extradited to the US.

Mr Kashamu and 14 others in 1998 were charged by a federal grand jury for their alleged involvement in an international conspiracy to smuggle heroin into the US. But the politician, a major campaigner for President Goodluck Jonathan in the South West, allegedly fled to the UK where the efforts made by the US to extradite him failed, before he returned to Nigeria.

Source: Legit.ng

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