Supreme Court Fixes July 30 For Kashamu’s Case

BY RAYMOND OSHO

The Supreme Court has fixed July 30 as the fresh hearing date in an appeal filed by the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic (PDP) in the last election, Senator Buruji Kashamu.

In the appeal, Kashamu is praying the apex court to stop the Federal Government from extraditing him to the United States of America (USA) for trial in an alleged hard drug trafficking offense.

The key respondents in the appeal filed by Kashamu to stop the execution of two Appeal Court judgments granted against him are the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

The date for the fresh hearing was communicated by the court through the issuance of hearing notices to the parties involved in the legal tussle.

The Supreme Court will review the two judgments delivered in favour of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) by the Lagos division of Court of Appeal on May 4, last year.

The senator is also praying the Apex Court to set aside the decisions of the Court of Appeal as they affected him.

But the AGF, acting on behalf of the Federal Government has joined legal i

ssues with him with a counter prayer that the Apex Court should uphold the judgments of the Court of Appeal which cleared impediments preventing the extradition plan.

Kashamu had in his notice of appeal to the Supreme Court complained that the Court of Appeal erred in law by voiding and setting aside the two judgments of the Federal High Court, Abuja which barred the Federal Government from going ahead with the planned extradition.

The AGF claimed that the Appeal Court was right in setting aside the judgments of the High Court because they were based on hearsay evidence of Kashamu before the court.

The AGF urged the Supreme Court to allow the judgments of the Court of Appeal to enable the Federal government extradite the Senator to USA to prove his innocence or otherwise in the hard drug trafficking criminal charge filed against him by the American government since 2015 when he was alleged to have escaped to Nigeria.

Legal luminary, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN is leading the legal team of the Senator while Chief Emeka Ngige, SAN, is leading the Federal Government legal team at the Apex Court.

The Court of Appeal had on May 4 cleared the impediments for the federal government to extradite the senator, who had engaged government in a long drawn legal battle since 2014.

The appellate court in the two separate judgments voided and set aside all orders made by a Federal High Court between 2014 and 2017 restraining the government from proceeding with the extradition.

Justice Joseph Ikyeghi in the judgments marked CA/L/1030/15 and CA/L/1030A/15 in the appeal filed by the AGF held that the orders granted Kashamu by Justice Okon Abang were invalid and unknown to laws because they were based on hearsays and speculations by Senator Kashamu.