Adoke reveals Kashamu’s Arrest by NDLEA was Prompted by U.S Extradition Request
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke (SAN), has revealed the reason for the house arrest placed on People’s Democratic Party’s Senator-elect, Buruji Kashamu.
Adoke said his office received a extradition request last week on behalf of the Nigerian government from the United States of America. According to reports, the U.S. wants Kashamu for a 20-year-old heroin deal.
He said he then forwarded the request to the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency as it was the appropriate agency for required action as it was a drug-related offence. The NDLEA in effect placed Kashamu on house arrest on Saturday.
Although the chairman of NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, confirmed news of the arrest, Kashamu’s spokesman, Austin Oniyokor, tagging the action “a political conspiracy”, said: “He has not been arrested but there is a siege to his house and an attempt to forcibly take him. The agents did not have an arrest warrant.
“This latest onslaught is a confirmation of the alleged plot to illegally abduct him in spite of the pending suit against this illegality.”
According to Giade however, Kashamu will appear in a federal high court on Monday to start extradition proceedings to the U.S where he had reportedly been indicted in 1998 by a Chicago grand jury for conspiracy to import and distribute heroin. He also spent five years in a British jail before he was freed over uncertainty about his identity.
The senator-elect however denied the allegations, claiming it is a case of mistaken identity and the offender was his dead brother whom he closely resembles.
