A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has
fixed May 27, 2015 to decide on a fundamental rights enforcement suit
filed by the senator-elect for Ogun East Senatorial District, Mr. Buruji
Kashamu, seeking protection against the alleged plot to extradite him
to the United States.
Kashamu, in the said suit, accused the
Inspector-General of Police and 11 others of plotting to abduct and
forcibly transport him to the US to face trial on alleged drug-related
offences.
He alleged that he had uncovered plans by
the defendants doing the bidding of former President Olusegun Obasanjo
to arrest him during his swearing in as a senator and to transport him
to the US in a private plane to face trial before Judge Norgle.
He therefore prayed the court to declare
the alleged abduction and extradition plot as an infringement on his
fundamental human right to liberty, freedom of association and freedom
of movement as provided by sections 35, 40 and 41 of the Constitution.
Moving the application on Friday,
Kashamu’s lawyer, Dr. Alex Izinyon, said his client had rushed to court
to seek protection because “when you see a danger coming, you don’t have
to wait until it takes place.”
He said the law allowed an applicant to
seek the court’s protection when he sees that a danger “has been, is
being or is likely to be” unleashed on him, adding that Kashamu fell
within the perimeter of “likely to be.”
Besides, Izinyon argued that none of the 12 respondents sued had controverted the alleged plot to abduct his client.
But counsel to the Inspector-General of
Police and the Interpol National Central Bureau, Mr. David Igbodo, said
Kashamu failed to show any proof of the alleged move to abduct and
extradite him.
Igbodo, who described Kashamu’s action as speculative, urged the court to dismiss the suit.
“My Lord, what the 1st and 5th
respondents are simply saying is that this application is speculative.
The 1st and 5th respondents have not made, are not making and are not
likely to make any attempt to abduct the applicant as alleged by the
applicant.”
Igbodo added that abduction is a criminal
offence, which the IGP, as the foremost law enforcement agent in the
country, would never engage in.
The other respondents who, through their
counsel, urged the court to dismiss Kashamu’s suit were the Chairman,
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Chairman, Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission; Director General, Department of State Service; and
the Attorney General of the Federation.
Others were the Clerk of the National
Assembly; the National Security Adviser to the President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria; Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related
Offences Commission; Nigeria Customs Services; the Nigeria Immigration
Service; and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
Earlier, Justice Okon Abang refused an
application by the counsel for the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr.
Joshua Okah, to join Obasanjo as a respondent in the suit.
Okah said, “My Lord, we have perused the
affidavit in support of the applicant’s originating summons and we
observed that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo featured prominently and serious
allegations were levelled against him; we have brought this application
that he should be joined as a necessary respondent for the complete and
effective determination of this matter.”
But Izinyon, who described the
application as an abuse of court processes, said it was an aberration
for a respondent in a suit to seek to join another respondent.
Ruling on the arguments, Abang upheld
Izinyon’s argument and dismissed the application to join Obasanjo as a
respondent in Kashamu’s suit.
Kashamu is seeking, among other reliefs,
an order of the court directing the IGP to “provide a security detail of
at least six armed police officers to protect the applicant at all
times of the day and to prevent (him from) any attack or abduction.”
He also prayed for an order directing the
Clerk of the National Assembly “to accord the applicant every facility,
right and privileges due to a senator-elect of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria until he takes his oath of office and thereafter as is due to a
senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He prayed the court to restrain all the
respondents and their agents from preventing him from entering the
National Assembly hall.
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