A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Wole Olanipekun, has said there is no justification for the Federal Government to push for the extradition of the lawmaker representing the Ogun East Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Buruji Kashamu.
Olanipekun, Kashamu’s lawyer, stated this in a letter written to the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), after a letter by the office of the AGF to the United States Embassy in asking the embassy to make a fresh request to facilitate the commencement of new extradition proceedings against Kashamu since the courts had dismissed the one written in 2015.
The letter by the office of the Attorney General, written in 2016, became public after the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, in CA/L/1030/2015 and CA/L/1030A/2015, which overturned the decision the perpetual injunction of a Federal High Court restraining law enforcement agencies from arresting Kashamu.
But Olanipekun, in the letter dated May 30, 2018, said, “There cannot be any justification for the Nigerian government through the exalted office of the Attorney General of the Federation to push for the extradition of our client (Kashamu).”
He added, “There is nothing in any of the two judgments of the Court of Appeal warranting, calling for or signalling the extradition of our client either from within or without Nigeria, and more particularly, from the high office of the Chief Law Officer of our dear country.”
Olanipekun stressed that the Court of Appeal did not dismiss any challenge by Kashamu to his extradition proceedings.
He also noted that the Court of Appeal did not set aside the far-reaching pronouncements made in Kashamu’s favour by the lower courts. (Punch)
