Chieftain of the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, and Senator-elect
for the Ogun East Senatorial District, Prince
Buruji Kashamu, has accused
former
President Olusegun Obasanjo of instigating
foreign security agencies to apprehend him
in Nigeria and extradite him to the United
States of America, USA, to answer to drug-
related charges.
Consequently, he has sent a Save-My-
Soul, SMS, letter to the National Human
Rights Commission, NHRC, insisting that
the subterranean plot to ‘capture’ him has
thickened.
Kashamu begged the Commission not to
stand by and watch his fundamental
human rights trampled upon at the behest
of former President Obasanjo.
It will be recalled that it was Kashamu that
p ersuaded Justice Valentine Ashi of the
Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting
at Apo to order security agencies in Nigeria
to confiscate Obasanjo’s autobiography
entitled “My Watch”.
It took the former President to get the high
court to vacate that confiscation order
which had even prohibited both Vendors
and Libraries in the country from as much
as touching the autobiography.
Kashamu had insisted that portions of the
book dwelt on his alleged involvement in
drug pushing and an allegation that he is a
wanted fugitive in America, a subject
matter he said had already been
surrendered to a competent court of
jurisdiction.
Meantime, in his petition to the NHRC,
Kashamu urged the commission to
investigate the alleged move to abduct him
and forcibly take him to the US to answer
to charges bothering on drug related
offences.
The petition, dated April 15th, 2015 was
written on his behalf by his lawyer, Mr
Ajibode Oluyede and entitled: “Prince
Buruji Kashamu: Abduction Plans By
United States of America Agents in
Collaboration with Law Enforcement
Agencies in Nigeria.”
The lawyer in the petition which was
addressed to the Executive Secretary of the
NHRC, Professor Bem Angwe, stated:
“Kashamu has instructed that we bring
certain important facts and records to your
attention with regard to the illegality of this
plan and the malicious and unpatriotic
motives of those behind it and seek your
urgent intervention in accordance with the
jurisdiction expressly given to your
commission by the National Human Rights
Act 1995 as amended to carry out and
inquiry into the matter in order to establish
the culpability and compromise of certain
institution in this despicable plan and to
protect our client’s fundamental human
right to liberty, life and dignity of the
person.”
Kashamu told the Commission that
regardless of several decisions both in
Nigeria and the United Kingdom which
exonerated him from the alleged offences,
desperate politicians had been putting
pressure on the Attorney General of the
Federation to resuscitate the US indictment
against him in Nigeria and to instigate an
extradition process against him on the
accusations.
He maintained that the current plan to
abduct him was an admission by the US
authorities that there is no case against
him. He insisted that it is Obasanjo that
is spreading a new witch-hunt net over
him as a form of revenge against him for
the comprehensive political defeat he
(Obasanjo) suffered because of Kashamu
in the PDP.
Kashamu told the commission that the
pressure on the AGF failed, a situation he
said was owing to the absence of any
document showing that he was indicted
in the US, nor any evidence that he was
ever declared wanted both any authority in
the US as required by the Extradition treaty
in the US and the Nigerian Extradition law.
He said that several people close to the
AGF had warned him to watch his back
because there were moves to have him
extradited to the US.
According to his lawyer, “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, 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.
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”,
he added.
It will equally be recalled that Fashamu’s
suit before the FCT High court had
culminated into a war-of-words between
him and Obasanjo, with the plaintiff
alleging before the court that the erstwhile
President is a school drop out.Irked by the
fact that Obasanjo had in his statement of
defence to the suit described him as “a
drug pusher with neither local or
international reputation”, Kashamu, fired
back, calling the ex-president “a social
misfit”.
“The plaintiff acknowledges that the
defendant (Obasanjo),was a poverty-
stricken dropout from school and
otherwise a social misfit who eventually
found fame and fortune by joining the
Armed Forces of Nigeria and benefitting
disproportionately from opportunism of
military adventure into governance in
Nigeria”, Kashamu averred before the
court.
He told the court that “Obasanjo’s
vaunted international acclaim was tested in
2008 when the former President contested
for the position of the Secretary-General of
the United Nation with a barely known
diplomat from Egypt.
“The defendant (Obasanjo) was put in his
place as he failed to fly the flag of the
nation successfully and lost the contest
disgracefully.”
Kashamu further insisted that Obasanjo’s
claims in his statement of defence
constituted “an aggravation of the libel
charge before the court”.
He said Obasanjo’s use of his “touted
national and international acclaim to
malign more productive members of the
society is uncalled for and could be
symptomatic of megalomania.”
On the other hand, the former President
who had earlier resolved not to personally
testify in the matter, in his statement of
defence, described Kashamu as a
notorious debtor and a man lacking in
local and international reputation.
He urged the court to dismiss the suit for
being “frivolous, speculative and gold
digging”, adding that no reasonable cause
of action was established against him.
Obasanjo in his statement of defence to
the N20billion libel suit against him, stood
his ground, saying he has no reason to
retract the words in the said letter as
requested by Kashamu.
“The statement/words are correct, true
and justified”, he maintained, adding, “The
plaintiff has no iota of good reputation
locally and internationally.
“Aside the plaintiff’s illicit drug business
for which he was indicted and wanted in
America, the plaintiff has penchant for
taking loans from unsuspecting banks/
financial institutions with intention to
permanently elude/avoid repayment or
liquidation of such loans.
“Further to that, the plaintiff has been
judicially adjudged/confirmed a debtor by
a competent court of law Cotonou,
Republic of Benin. And the plaintiff
presently occupies a choice position on
the Assets Management Corporation of
Nigeria’s list of notorious bad debtors.
“The plaintiff is a person, who with his true
name/identity supplied, will not be grante
d visa by the German government or any
country of the world having good
relationship with the United States of
America”, Obasanjo added.
