Buruji Kashamu, the senator-elect for Ogun East Senatorial District is caught between being happy and sad. His happiness has been cut short by the fear of a possible extradition to the United States of America to answer questions relating to drug trafficking.
Chief among those pulling the strings for his extradition is former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a former ally of Buruji, who has allegedly vowed to ensure that the Senator-elect ends up in jail.
Buruji is believed to be wanted in the US for drug-related offences. He has been hibernating in Nigeria and enjoying the protection of President Goodluck Jonathan for years even when Obasanjo raised complaints that such a person could not be made a leader of the party.
By Buruji’s position as the leader of the PDP in the South-West, it meant Obasanjo would have to be answerable to him, but Obasanjo’s efforts to make the party remove him and allow him face the US law proved abortive.
This, it is recalled, was one of the grouse Obasanjo had against Jonathan.
However, with the defeat of President Jonathan, there is fear in Buruji’s camp that the coast would soon be clear for his arrest by the United States.
Huhuonline.com learnt that every overture made by Buruji to appease Obasanjo since the electoral victory of General Muhammadu Buhari, Obasanjo’s friend and colleague in the military, has not yielded any positive result.
As a result, the alleged fugitive leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-West has turned to leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for protection.
To achieve this, Buruji, according to close associates of the Senator-elect, has mapped out various strategies.
“The first is to paint Asiwaju in glowing colours and massage his ego through the media and other news outlets. Then, he would pay a visit to Tinubu with a team.
“The visit would afford him the opportunity to hold a close-door meeting with the APC chieftain and former Governor of Lagos State where he would appeal for forgiveness and protection.
“If these two moves succeed, he would then consider defecting to the APC to secure his protection,” one of his loyalists told our correspondent.
The politician has achieved the first strategy with a recent comment describing Tinubu, once considered his arch-enemy, as his role model and true leader.
He said the APC national leader and his success are worthy of study.
It was learnt that the earlier plot was to romance Obasanjo and become loyal to him, but Obasanjo, according to supporters of Buruji, does not forgive when he is angry with anyone.
Part of the plot, in the case of Obasanjo, was to reduce the zeal with which Buruji wanted the court to stop the former President from continuing with publishing his recent book: ‘My Watch’.
The court has now reversed the order against publishing the book while the Nigerian Customs Service has released seized copies of the book to the publisher of the book.
Again, the Buruji recently sponsored an advertorial recognising Obasanjo as his leader despite the misunderstanding that was between them. But Obasanjo seems not to have yielded.
“We fear that he would convince Buhari to agree to the extradition of Buruji to the US and since every attempt to pacify him had not made any mark, we are also looking at other options including informing the public of Buruji’s plight to see if the former President would relinquish his position,” an aide to Buruji told Huhuonline.com.
Through his lawyer, Mr. Ajibola Oluyede, Buruji has now accused Obasanjo of cooperating with some foreign security allies to extradite him to the US, using illegal means.
In a petition to the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Bem Angwe, titled: Prince Buruji Kashamu: Abduction plans by United States of America agents in collaboration with law enforcement agencies in Nigeria, dated 15th April Buruji urged the body to investigate plans by Obasanjo and his allies to kidnap him and take him to the US.
In the petition, the complainant said the current plan to abduct him “is an admission by the US authorities that there is no case against him and is a design instigated and commissioned by Obasanjo who seeks revenge against him for the comprehensive political defeat Obasanjo suffered because of Kashamu in the PDP.
“In accordance with the jurisdiction expressly given to your commission by the National Human Rights Act 1995 as amended to carry out an inquiry into the matter in order to establish the culpability and compromise of certain institutions in this despicable plan and to protect our client’s fundamental human right to liberty, life and dignity of his person.”
He said he had been freed of any charges by Nigeria and the United Kingdom, but that some desperate politicians were hell-bent on making him face the law as they have continued to pressure the Nigerian Attorney General to resuscitate the US indictment against him in Nigeria, but that the pressure had not been made possible because the US did not make the demand as required by the Extradition Treaty the US and Nigeria as well as the Nigerian Extradition law.
“Kashamu’s enquiry revealed that indeed there had been moves by US officials within the region to secure the assistance of the head of the INTERPOL division in Nigeria, Mr. Solomon Arase, a Deputy Inspector General of Police, for the arrest and delivery to the US officials of Kashamu for transportation to the US without following the due process required by the Nigeria Extradition Act.
“Mr. Kashamu’s informant revealed that Arase has confirmed that one Donna Chabot approached him in January 2015. The said Ms Chabot is an Attache Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the American Embassy route Des Almedies
BP 49 Dakar Senegal and requested that INTERPOL Nigeria assist in the abduction of Kashamu for the purpose of his forcible transportation to the US to face trial before Judge Norgel,” he said.
Buhari has maintained that as President, he would allow the law take its course in every situation and would not interfere with the judicial arm of government.
Though, spokesman of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, Garba Shehu, could not be reached at the time of this report, an APC chieftain told Huhuonline.com that things would take their course when Buhari is sworn-into office on 29th May.
“We can’t start talking now, but I know things will take shape once Buhari becomes the President. We just have to keep our fingers crossed. Concerning Buruji, let’s just wait and see, but I know Buhari will work according to dictates of the law.
