Again, U.S. Appeals Court Upholds Kashamu’s Extradition For Drugs Offences

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, Illinois, has again affirmed the ruling of a lower court for the extradition of Ogun State senator, Buruji Kashamu, to stand trial for drugs crimes.

In a January 23, 2017 order, the presiding judge, Richard Posner, said Mr. 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 Mr. Posner delivered a similar judgement for immediate extradition of Mr. Kashamu for alleged drugs offences and money laundering.

In his September 15, 2014 judgment, Mr. Posner said Mr. 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.”

Mr. Posner further lamented that American authorities were not making enough efforts to arrest Mr. Kashamu, who was first indicted by a grand jury in 1998.

“Although the United States has an extradition treaty with Nigeria, our government has made no effort to extradite him,” he said at the time.


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