KASHAMU TO KEYAMO: YOU’RE IGNORANT By Our Reporter on April 24, 2015 Politics • Says U.S Govt never asked for his extradition By AKEEB ALARAPE Embattled senator-elect for Ogun East, Prince Buruji Kashamu, has picked holes in the outburst of a Lagos-based lawyer, Festus Keyamo, that his election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was morally wrong. Keyamo, who faulted Kashamu’s nomination by the PDP during a programme with the title, ‘Legal angle on Nigeria Info FM,’ had said the senator-elect may not have time to represent his people as he would spend more time facing probes over alleged drug trafficking than attending sessions as a senator. But in a response, yesterday, through his lawyer, Kashamu said Keyamo’s outburst was politically-motivated and not from a legal point of view. The statement, signed by Kashamu’s lawyer, Ajibola Oluyede, specifically stated that Keyamo displayed “a total ignorance of the incontrovertible facts of the matter,” adding that he made the statement “without regard to his learning as a lawyer and his undoubted proficiency in the profession. “Buruji Kashamu is not just merely claiming that he is innocent; two different courts in England, in two different judgments, have found and declared that Buruji Kashamu is innocent of the allegations made against him in the US court: The first is the English High Court of Justice (Kings Bench Division) in its judgment of January 2000 in which it said that the US Authorities Actually knew that Kashamu is innocent when they suppressed evidence of an identification parade in which the ring leader of the gang (that allegedly confessed that they had a West African link called “ALAJI) said that Buruji Kashamu was not the man involved with them. “The English High Court for this reason nullified and set aside the favourable judgment obtained by the U.S authorities against Kashamu on the basis of this suppressed exculpatory evidence,” he said. “The second judgment is that of 10th January 2003 in which District Judge Tim Workman expressly found (after 3 years of trial involving extensive oral evidence from both sides and copious documentary evidence) that the U.S Government had provided false evidence and eventually held that Kashamu was not involved in the crimes alleged and should be discharged. The U.S authorities did not appeal against these judgments and have made no move whatsoever in the last 11 years to extradite Kashamu,” the statement read in parts. The senator-elect said as at 23 April 2015, neither the U.S Government nor any of its agencies has asked for his extradiction, which Keyamo alluded to in his speech. “The second significant error in Festus’ outburst is the misrepresentation to the Nigerian public that the US Government has asked for Kashamu’s extradition. “The truth, which the Attorney General has himself confirmed in a case pending in the Supreme Court of Nigeria and by letter issued on 25th January 2015, is that the U.S Government has never asked for the extradition of Kashamu at any time up till today 23rd April 2015 (yesterday), the statement added.