A
Federal High Court in Lagos has overruled the provisional warrant of
arrest secured by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency seeking to
extradite the Ogun East senator-elect, Mr. Buruji Kashamu, to the
United States to face alleged drug trafficking charges.
The
court equally made an order halting the extradition further proceedings
in an application filed by the NDLEA before the Abuja Division of the
Federal High Court on Kashamu.
Kashamu, on
Monday through his lawyers, Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN) and Mr. Ajibola
Oluyede, secured separate orders from both Justices Okon Abang and
Ibrahim Buba of the Lagos Division of the court.
While Abang
quashed the extradition proceedings and the provisional warrant of
arrest issued by another judge of the Federal High Court, Buba
restrained the NDLEA from arresting and arraigning Kashamu in
furtherance of the extradition charges.
Oluyede had on Monday
appeared before Buba with a fresh application seeking an order to
nullify the provisional warrant of arrest obtained by the NDLEA against
his client.
Oluyede, in a motion on notice, asked the court to
nullify the NDLEA’s application to commence extradition proceedings
against him in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS /479/2015 at a Federal High
Court in Abuja.
The lawyer, while canvassing argument, pointed
out that despite an earlier order made by Buba last Thursday, the NDLEA
had not suspended action on the move to arrest, arraign and extradite
Kashamu.
He said it would be in the interest of justice to grant the fresh application.
In
opposition, however, NDLEA’s lawyer, O. Ichakpa, maintained that the
agency had not taken any step to undermine the processes before the
court.
But Buba, after listening to the arguments of both
lawyers, ordered that the NDLEA “shall not in the face of subsisting
judgement, orders of the court and processes filed and pending, enforce
or put to effect the warrant of arrest dated April 25, 2015.”
The judge equally quashed the move to arraign Kashamu on the extradition process filed by the NDLEA on April 28, 2015.
Buba
held that the restraining orders were necessary so as not to get
conflicting orders whilst cases were pending and judgments or orders
were also subsisting.
The judge subsequently adjourned till June
19 for further hearing of all applications including the committal
proceedings instituted by Kashamu against the Attorney General of the
Federation and the NDLEA Chairman, Ahmadu Glade.
In a similar
vein, Abang, in a ruling on a separate application argued by Iziyon
before him equally quashed the extradition proceedings and arrest
warrant secured by the NDLEA on Kashamu.
Credit: Ramon Oladimej/Punch
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