In a January 23, 2017 order, the Presiding Judge, Richard Posner, said Senator Kashamu must be extradited to the United States, as he had failed to make any compelling case to the contrary.
“For all these reasons, the decision of the District Court is affirmed,” Mr. Posner said, while issuing the order without oral argument, in case number 161004.
The order comes three years after Posner delivered a similar judgement for the immediate extradition of Kashamu, for alleged drugs offences and money laundering.
In his September 15, 2014 judgment, Posner said Kashamu’s alleged crimes have no statute of limitation, and whenever he steps into the United States, “whether voluntarily or involuntarily, he could be put on trial in the Federal District Court, in Chicago.”
Quote: “Although the United States has an extradition treaty with Nigeria, our government has made no effort to extradite him,” he said at the time.
Kashamu, again dragged the U.S. Government before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, in 2015, alleging a conspiracy to abduct him in Nigeria. His plea was however, rejected by the District Court.
While upholding the decision of the District Court, Posner said the U.S. law enforcement agents could come to Nigeria to arrest Kashamu, or be assisted by Nigerian security agencies in effecting his apprehension and subsequent extradition.
No law prevents U.S. authorities from: “being present when foreign officers are effecting an arrest, or from assisting foreign officers who are effecting an arrest”, the Chicago Tribune quoted Mr. Posner as saying.
Recall, that Kashamu has been fighting his extradition to the United States for several years.
A six-day siege to his home in May, 2015, ended after a Federal High Court Judge ordered officials of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency to back down.
Kashamu, first elected as Senator from Ogun East Senatorial District, in 2015, has maintained his innocence in the drug charges.
His Lawyers said the controversy had been a case of mistaken identity, and that the Senator had been discharged and acquitted following a lengthy trial in the United Kingdom.
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