Court rejects FG’s request to extradite Kashamu

The suit filed by the Federal Government seeking the extradition of Senator Buruji Kashamu to the United States of America to answer to drug related charges, has been dismissed by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.

The suit was filed by the immediate past Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, on May 28, 2015 after the United States government requested the federal government to submit Kashamu for extradition.

Ruling on the case, Justice Gabriel Kolawole held that he lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit since the judgment of the division of the court in Lagos nullifying the proceedings on June 8, 2015 and the same judgment affirmed by another judge of the same Lagos division had not been set aside by an appellate court.

Justice Okon Abang and Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court had earlier nullified the extradition proceedings which they said were initiated in contravention of an earlier order of the court.
Though, the judge expressed reservations on the Lagos judgments, describing them as “wild and audacious,” he nevertheless held that it was only the Court of Appeal that can determine whether they were rightly or wrongly given.
Counsel to Kashamu, Mr. Ajibola Oluyede, had on June 25, 2015 urged the court to dismiss the extradition application in the light of the judgments delivered in Lagos.
 on July 1, 2015