Court rules on arrest warrant against Kashamu July 1

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, slated July 1 to rule on an application, seeking a warrant of arrest against Buruji Kashamu, the senator representing Ogun-East Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
In a short ruling to the Federal Government’s application praying the court to issue a bench warrant of arrest against Kashamu, the trial judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, said he would also decide on whether there are enough reasons for the commencement of the extradition proceedings against Kashamu by the Federal Government on that same day.
At the resumed hearing of the extradition application on Thursday, counsel to the Federal Government, M. S. Hassan, prayed the court to issue a bench warrant of arrest against Kashamu for him to appear in court to face the extradition case against him.
Kashamu’s counsel, in his submissions, asked the court to strike out the matter as the orders made by Justices Ibrahim Buba and O.E Abba of Federal High Court, Lagos, have extinguished the current action by the prosecution.
He urged the court to give effect to the orders made by the two courts and strike out the matter as filed by the prosecution.
Prosecution counsel, M. S Hassan, in his submission, urged the court to discountenance the submissions of the defence counsel, saying that Federal High Court in Lagos has no supervisory jurisdiction over Federal High Court in Abuja.
According to him, at the time the orders were made in Lagos, extradition process had not been initiated and urged Justice Kolawole to nullify the orders of the federal high courts in Lagos, pointing out that a court of coordinate jurisdiction can nullify an order made in error by another court.
It will be recalled that the extradition application number FHC/ABJ/CS/479/2015, filed before the court on May 28, 2015 was signed by the immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN).
The application followed a request by the Embassy of the United States of America seeking the Nigerian government to surrender Kashamu to face a drug related charge before the United States District Court for the Northern Illinois, Eastern Division.
An affidavit deposed to by Assistant US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Diane MacArthur‎, attached to the extradition request from the US government, was said to be dated April 27, 2015.
By the US government’s charge against him, Kashamu allegedly conspired with others to intentionally import ‘and did import’ into the United States quantities of mixtures containing heroin, between 1992 and 1995, an offence that is said to contravene Section 952(a) of Title 21, United States Code, and punishable under Section 960 of the ‎same law.
The penalty for the offence on conviction under the law, according to the charge, is an imprisonment of not more than 10 years‎ or a fine of up to $10 million in the case of an individual, or both.