BY YINKA AJAYI

The move to extradite Prince Buruji Kashama, senator-elect for Ogun East and a top member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to the United States (US) for trial on drug charges climaxed, penultimate Saturday, when men of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) stormed his residence. The arrival of the NDLEA men at the Lekki, Lagos residence of the politician marked the beginning of a drama that ordinarily should have been reserved for the Nollywood. There were scores of heavily armed NDLEA men to arrest an unarmed civilian. Gates to Kashamu’s  residence were brought down by the drug law enforcement operatives to gain entry.

This was followed by the breaking of doors in search of their prey. But the senator-elect was nowhere to be  found.

Kashamu had every reason to make himself unavailable to the armed  visitors. The siege was simply illegal. There was a validly court order procured by the senator-elect restraining the NDLEA from extraditing him to the US. Sensing danger following threats by some powerful individuals in the country to have him sent to the US to face drug charges – charges on which two British courts had acquitted him  some 20 years ago – on the grounds of political differences, Kashamu had gone to  a  Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to procure an order to stop the NDLEA and other security agencies in the country from acting in like manner. To the best of my knowledge, that court order was not discharged before the penultimate Saturday siege to his house obviously to extradite him. It would seem the forces against the senator-elect got so desperate they would do anything, even if extra-judicially, to get him out of the way. And the action of the NDLEA was a lesson in impunity under an administration that professes the rule of law as one of  its pillars.

Later that Saturday, the NDLEA  issued a statement to say the siege on Kashamu’s residence was continuing but it would head to the court on Monday to get an order authorising it to extradite Kashamu. I share the sentiment of lawyers ,who argued that the import of the NDLEA statement  was that it did not have a  court warrant to effect the senator-elect’s arrest. The agency was just going to court that Monday to procure a warrant of arrest that would have been carried out  two  days earlier. Like a  lawyer said, the NDLEA  action  amounted to working from the answer to the question rather than the other way round. Besides the court order stopping the arrest of Kashamu for extradition, the lack of a warrant of arrest before the NDLEA operatives embarked on the siege was another illegality.

Kashamu

Meanwhile, contrary to the promise by the agency to go to court that Monday to plead the cause of the senator-elect’s extradition to the US, it never did. Rather it was the counsel to Kashamu  who  went to court to reinforce the earlier order stopping his client’s  extradition on the one hand and ending the siege to the residence on the other. The court granted the two prayers. Specifically, the judge described the siege to the politician’s residence as subjudice, stressing that it did not  follow due process. But a shocker was to come to those of us who believe in the rule of law.

NDLEA, an agency that is a creation of the law, said it would not obey the court order. It said its operatives would not vacate Kashamu’s residence. Said the NDLEA through its spokesperson: “The NDLEA does not believe that any court will issue an order preventing a government agency from performing its statutory responsibilities  in a lawful manner. The agency has, therefore, refused to be distracted and will continue to maintain presence at the (Kashamu) residence. It is advisable that Kashamu respects the law by submitting himself to the due process of the law.”

Although the NDLEA operatives later left the residence, what is clear is that some people are after Kashamu; and it does not matter the means that is employed to get him, so long as it justifies the end.

That penultimate Saturday, amid the siege to the residence, the senator – elect had hinted that Chief Olabode George, a top chieftain of the PDP, using his wife, a high ranking official of the NDLEA, was behind his travails. Even if he did not explicitly say it, my understanding of the Kashamu statement was that he had some political misunderstanding with Olabode George. Before then, Kashamu’s lawyer had said information was leaked to him by a source close to the then attorney general of the federation, Mr Adoke, of a plot to abduct his client and send him to the US.

The lawyer alleged that those behind the plot were working in collaboration with former President Olusegun Obasanjo who has not hidden his quest to have the senator-elect extradited to the US. All said, what happened in the case of the NDLEA siege and the agency’s defiance of a  court order is bad for the system, especially under an outgoing regime that claimed to have  respect for the rule of law, and in a democracy. Under no circumstances should  it have happened. It should not happen again. No government agency is above the law. The Buhari regime must ensure that.