The fate of Senator Buruji Kashamu, whether or not to be extradited to the United States for drugs related offences, is hanging in the balance.
This is as the Supreme Court has fixed July 30 for fresh hearing notices in an appeal filed by Kashamu in which he is praying the apex court to stop the federal government from transporting him to the States for trial in an alleged hard drug trafficking offences.
Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) are respondents in the appeal filed by Kashamu.
Kashamu has engaged in a battle for survival over the years in his bid to avoid the extradition for trial in an offence he said he never committed.
Kashamu towards this end is praying the apex court to review the two judgments delivered in favour of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) by the Lagos division of Court of Appeal on May 4 last year.
Kashamu had in his notice of appeal to Supreme Court complained that the Court of Appeal erred in law by voiding and setting aside the two judgments of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which barred the federal government from going ahead with his extradition.
The Senator is praying the court to set aside the decisions of the Court of Appeal as they affected him.
But the AGF who is acting on behalf of the federal government has joined issues with him with a counter prayer that the apex court should uphold the judgments of the Court of Appeal which cleared the coast for his extradition.
The AGF claimed that the Appeal Court was right in setting aside the judgments of the high court because they were based on hearsay evidence of Kashamu before the court.
The AGF urged the Supreme Court to allow the judgments of the Court of Appeal to enable the federal government extradite the Senator to USA to prove his innocence or otherwise in a criminal charge filed against him by the American government since 2015 when he was alleged to have escaped to Nigeria.
Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) is leading the legal team of the Senator while Chief Emeka Ngige (SAN) is representing the federal government.
The Court of Appeal had on May 4 held that the federal government was right to want to extradite the Senator, who had engaged government in a long drawn legal battle since 2014.
The appellate court in the two separate judgments voided and set aside all orders made by a federal high court between 2014 and 2017 restraining the government from proceeding with the extradition.
Justice Joseph Ikyeghi in the judgments marked CA/L/1030/15 and CA/L/1030A/15 in the appeal filed by the AGF held that the orders granted Kashamu by Justice Okon Abang were invalid and unknown to laws because they were based on hearsays and speculations by Senator Kashamu.
The court held that the hearsay that a former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was instigating the extradition was not established under any law.
The appellate court said that an affidavit deposed to by the Senator on the issue was worthless and not in compliance with Evidence Act because the Senator himself claimed that he was told by several persons who were not called to testify in court.
Justice Ikyeghi held that Justice Abang in his two judgments on the issue erred in law by playing undue reliance on affidavit that offended Evidence Act to give judgment against the federal government.
Consequently, the order of injunction stopping the extraction process was voided and set aside.
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