Drug Deals: NDLEA Goes For Broke,‘Arrests’ Senator-elect, Kashamu

8 years ago

Drug Deals: NDLEA Goes For Broke,‘Arrests’ Senator-elect, Kashamu

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), yesterday said it has placed Senator-elect, Buruji Kashamu under house arrest, pending his appearance in court tomorrow, to perfect his extradition to the United States Read Here.

This follows a siege to the Lekki, Lagos State residence of the Senator-elect, who also doubles as the chairman, organisation and mobilisation committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South West, by men of the NDLEA in the early hours of yesterday.

Yesterday’s development came after months of grandstanding by the accused, over alleged drug offences committed in the United States of America.

LEADERSHIP Sunday learnt that the stern looking NDLEA officials stormed his Lekki Phase 1 residence at about 5am and cordoned off the building, to possibly arrest Kashamu and extradite him to the United States for trial in the drug related allegations proffered against him.

But in a reaction, Kashamu described the siege to his home as illegal.

In a statement signed by his media aide, Austin Oniyokor, he said the latest onslaught was a confirmation of the alleged plot to illegally abduct him in spite of the pending suit against the illegality.

“As a matter of fact, the court has ordered parties in the matter including the NDLEA to maintain status quo until judgment is delivered on Wednesday 27th May 2015. We have confirmed that they do not have a warrant of arrest, just as the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice has said that it did not give any order to carry out this illegality,” he said.

Kashamu accused Lagos PDP chieftain, Chief Bode George, whose wife is the Director General of the NDLEA, of being behind his ordeal, saying the move was aimed at scoring cheap political points.

“We urge all well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on NDLEA, Chief George and his wife to toe the

path of the rule of law and follow due process.
Nigeria is not a banana republic! The United States being the bastion of democracy, the rule of law and due process should not lend itself to this kind of illegality”, the statement said.

Reacting to the development, the Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, while speaking on state radio, advised the NDLEA to call off the siege.

He described Kashamu as a “great Yoruba son and patriotic Nigerian”, warning that the extradition of Buruji would have “dire implication on the relationship between Yoruba people and the incoming Buhari Government.”

Meanwhile, the NDLEA in a statement by its head of public affairs, Ofoyeju Mitchell, yesterday, quoted the agency’s chairm, Ahmadu Giade to have said that the operation was in line with the legal process of extradition.

“The agency has commenced extradition procedures against Senator-elect, Buruji Kashamu in line with the laws of country. He has been in contact with his attorneys and will appear in court on Monday,” Giade stated, in the statement.

Despite claims by Kashamu that he had confirmed that the NDLEA did not have a warrant to arrest him and that the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice did not give any order to carry out the operation, the AGF, Mohammed Adoke, yesterday said the arrest of Kashamu was not an extra-judicial action.

In a report monitored on Channels TV yesterday, Adoke said a formal request had been made by the American government seeking his extradition and same had been passed to the appropriate legal body.

He added that due process and all legal proceedings would be pursued with respect to his extradition.

Kashamu’s Struggles
Buruji Kashamu’s travails with security operatives began shortly after he fell apart with former president Olusegun Obasanjo in the control of the leadership of the PDP in Ogun State.

Back in 2008, Kashamu was in Obasanjo’s faction of the PDP against the then Ogun State governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.

However, the emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan after the 2011 election and the well reported differences that eventually led to Obasanjo first, quitting as BoT chairman before ‘the season of letters’ between Jonathan and his erstwhile godfather, Obasanjo would signal more trouble as Jonathan not long after, appointed Kashamu as the chairman of organisation and mobilisation committee for Jonathan’s re-election in the South West.

In his famous resignation letter, Obasanjo cited that as the chairman of anti-drug body in West Africa, he could not continue to be in a party where a wanted drug baron was the leader in his home state.

Kashamu replied that when he played the ‘bad boy’ for Obasanjo to neutralise Daniel, the former leader did not see him as a wanted person and continued to be a sub-plot in the rift between Obasanjo and Jonathan until early this year, when Obasanjo openly tore his PDP membership cards into pieces.

Late in 2014, Obasanjo had launched a book, ‘My Watch’, in which he detailed Kashamu as a fugitive but Kashamu went to court – the same way he had gone to court on several occasions until he secured the control of the PDP in Ogun State. He secured an injunction restraining Obasanjo from selling the book.

The order has since been vacated after Jonathan’s loss at the last general election.

In between time, Kashamu had emerged as senatorial candidate for Ogun East senatorial district and was returned elected at the general election.

Since his victory at the poll, Kashamu has been taking pre-emptive steps to forestall any attempt to ‘abduct’ him for extradition to the USA for trial.

The embattled Senator- elect, in a bid to avert his arrest and detention had before now dragged the Inspector-General of Police and 11 others before a Federal High court sitting in Lagos, asking it to enforce his fundamental human right to freedom of movement.

Meanwhile, the Coalition of Civil Society Groups (CSOGs) has condemned the action of the NDLEA officers, in a press statement signed by the president, Comrade Etuk Bassey Williams.