Re: Will Buhari risk all for Kashamu?

A mindset like that expressed by the author of the above piece is the reason why Senator Buruji Kashamu might never rest in the fact that he has been arrested, tried and acquitted by the British Courts in a long drawn extradition saga, spanning four years, at the instance of the United States Department of Justice.

Coming from a writer that has seemingly enlightened and logical mind, the only reason to be deduced from his blatant denial of the widely published fact of this matter is mischief. Obviously, the people beating the drums of war deviously dancing out of his mind are the very same political adversaries of the distinguished Senator; they are sparing nothing in their mission to edge him out of politics. We know one of them to be a certain governor in the South-West who is one of beneficiaries of Senator Kashamu’s generosity. He has been calling columnists and sponsoring articles against Senator Kashamu. We won’t be surprised if one of such is Lanre Adewole’s Gibbers published in the Sunday Tribune of 5th February, 2017.

Since the truth is the only weapon against lies, I will like to reiterate the following: The US Courts acknowledged that Senator Kashamu was arrested and tried twice in London at the US Government’s request, and that the US Justice Department lawyers worked closely with their English counterparts. In effect, the British Government cooperated with the US government on the both occasions as if it was the Federal Government of Nigeria. He was exonerated because it was found that it was a case of mistaken identity.

The US court verdict that has become the basis for the culmination of the onslaught against the Distinguished Senator on various fronts by his detractors and their minions was the judgment on a suit filed by Kashamu himself because in spite of the fact that the English court had made positive and definitive findings exonerating him and also declaring that Kashamu was not the accused person being sought, he has repeatedly explained that is only appropriate for him to ask that the indictment be quashed. And rightly so because he has the rights and responsibility to lawfully seek protect.

The author also “frankly” wondered why Kashamu is afraid of trial if he is sure of his innocence. I would like to respond to that with an excerpt from a thesis on wrongful convictions in the United States of America, written by Joshua A. Jones, in which he quotes the U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy who introduced the Innocence Protection Act which states Public confidence in the judicial system is undermined, innocent people suffer, and public safety is compromised because for every person wrongfully convicted there is a real criminal who may still be roaming the streets (Blackerby, 2003; Zalman, 2006). Contemporary estimates contend that perhaps as many as 7,500 persons arrested for index crimes are wrongfully convicted annually in the United States, though there are no extant reliable statistics on the precise incidence of miscarriages of justice (Huff, 2002; Zalman, Larson, & Smith, 2012). At issue here is not only the innocence of Senator Kashamu but the possibility of Senator Kashamu, a black man and foreigner, getting justice from a US Judicial system that is prejudiced and fundamentally flawed. Senator Kashamu’s fears – indeed that of all right-thinking members of the society – are further reinforced by the U.S.’ concealment of identification evidence that clearly exonerated Senator Kashamu!

Blackmailing and arm twisting the President Buhari-led Federal Government to effect the arrest and extradition of a man who has been declared innocent by courts in the U.K. and Nigeria is an obscene form of advocacy.  Making a mountain out of a mole hill by wondering if Buhari will risk all for Kashamu speaks to the fact that some insecure people will stop at nothing in their devious scheme to eliminate formidable competition. There are more pertinent issues between the Nigeria and the United States; Kashamu is certainly not on the list.

Meanwhile, a man who has been deploying his resources in a landmark mobilisation drive for his party in his state and actively depopulating the rank and file of the APC in his zone to rebuild the critical mass of his party cannot be said to be on a mission to exterminate that very same party. While it is our fundamental right to speak, we must realise the fact that those rights come with the responsibility to be truthful.

Oyejide writes from Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.