Fayose denies comment on Kashamu

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has dismissed the statement being credited to him on the travail of Senator-elect, Buruji Kashamu, in the hands of men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

Fayose, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, on Saturday said the comment must have been generated by desperate political spin doctors to link him with what he knew nothing about.

The statement read, “Kindly disregard any press statement being circulated that I made on Prince Buruji Kashamu today.

“I have not made any press statement on the travail of Buruji Kashamu today both on Twitter and Facebook or any social media platform.

“Obviously, the comment being referred to was generated by desperate political spin doctors with ulterior motives and their motive must be to drag me into what does not concern me as a governor.

“For all intent and purposes, the issue relating to Prince Buruji Kashamu is not political and I as a governor does not have anything to do with it.”

Fayose denies comment on Kashamu

Obla faults Kashamu’s lawyer over abduction plot

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Godwin Obla, has denied leaking an alleged plot by the United States of America to arrest the Ogun-East senator- elect, Buruji Kashamu, and extradite him to face charges of illicit drug trafficking in the US.

Buruji Kashamu

Kashamu had stated in a petition to the National Human Rights Commission that Obla got the information of the plot to abduct him from the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Adoke Mohammed (SAN), and leaked it to his (Kashamu’s) personal lawyer, Mr. Ajibola Oluyede.

But Obla has denied having any information relating to the alleged plot.

He has dragged Oluyede, who authored the NHRC petition on behalf of Kashamu, before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, insisting that the story of his involvement in the leaking of the alleged information was a mere fabrication.

Obla maintained that the fabrication by Oluyede was made to make his client’s case look good.

The SAN asked the LPDC “to inquire into the infamous conduct of Ajibola Oluyede with a view to bringing him before the committee to account for the misdeed to save the legal profession of loss of reputation and integrity of its members.”

He said that though he was close to Adoke, at no time did the two of them discuss issues relating to Kashamu’s extradition.

Oluyede had stated in the petition that Obla told him of the plot to forcibly extradite Kashamu to the USA while they were both on a flight to the US.

Oluyede said Obla told him that as a friend to Adoke, he (Obla) witnessed an occasion when former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a political adversary to Kashamu, was mounting pressure on the AGF to ensure the extradition of the senator-elect to the US

But Obla said in his petition to the LPDC that he did not know beyond what was reported in the media about the personality of Kashamu.

He said he had “never had any connection, nor shown any particular or special interest beyond the media effects of consistent reportage on the person of Kashamu and his associates, including the said Prince Ajibola Oluyede, his lawyer, with whom I only had a brief encounter in court in the year 2013 in the course of my professional duties in suits totally unconnected with Kashamu.”

He said he would have ignored “the lies” told by Oluyede “but the mere antic of a desperate lawyer sliding beyond his call of duty to indulge in the old tales on a voyage of fabricating facts in order to earn his brief at all costs, however, I am mindful of the Goebbellian effects of falsehoods donning the toga of truth if unchallenged, and it’s deleterious effects on the integrity of the Bar, hence, this complaint.”

Obla said he had only had few encounters with Oluyede in court and the relationship did not go beyond professional

acquaintance.

He said the encounters “could by no means have translated into such friendship intimacy as to warrant, by any widest imagination, the deluded fancy that he shared such nonexistent information or facts with him as alleged.”

Kashamu’s petition dated April 15, 2015, to the NHRC had read in part, “On a flight to the Federal Capital, Abuja, from Lagos sometime in October 2014, a colleague and friend of our principal partner, R. A Oluyede, Chief Obla (SAN), who is also very close to the AGF, informed Mr. Oluyede of the tremendous pressure that Chief (Olusegun) Obasanjo was bringing upon the AGF for the extradition of Prince Kashamu and that in one discussion between the AGF and Chief Obasanjo, witnessed by him (the SAN), Chief Obasanjo had boasted that he was malting arrangements with some US officials in the region to have Prince Kashamu abducted and flown in a private plane to the US.

“He advised that Mr. Oluyede tell Prince Kashamu, known widely to be his client, to be very careful. Prince Kashamu’s enquiry about this information revealed that indeed, there had been moves made by US officials within the region to secure the assistance of the head of the INTERPOL division in Nigeria, Mr. Solomon Arase, a Deputy Inspector General of Police, for the arrest and delivery to the US officials of Kashamu for transportation to the US without following the due process required by the Nigeria Extradition Act.”

Obla faults Kashamu’s lawyer over abduction plot

Asking me to go to US is like jumping into fire - Kashamu

Senator-elect and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State, Mr. Buruji Kashamu, on Saturday, denied any past trip to the United States and ruled out any possibility of ever visiting the country in the future.

Buruji Kashamu

In an interview with Sahara TV, monitored by NAIJA CENTER NEWS, the PDP chieftain likened such a visit to leaping into fire.

Asked by the interviewer to clarify his alleged involvement in a United States criminal case as detailed in a popular prison memoir-turned-TV series by American, Piper Kerman, Kashamu refuted the claims.

He said, “I am a Nigerian. I am not running away from my fatherland. If anyone thinks he has a case against me, he should follow due process and we will take it up from there. I am not under any obligation to go to the US to answer the same charges after the true judgment of the British court has exonerated me of the same allegations.

“Asking me to take the next available flight to the US so as to clear my name is like asking me to jump in a fire-may the Almighty rescue me from it. If the US prosecutor could hide important evidence that later exonerated me in the UK court, only God knows what they will do in their country.

“I have done a lot of things to clear my name. I spent four years in detention at the hands of the US authorities to prove my innocence before I was eventually exonerated. This was also in the presence of the US prosecutors and other agencies in various countries, like the Republic of Benin, Nigeria. It was after a rigorous trial with pictorial and documentary evidence that I was discharged.”

Kashamu further explained that the case was taken to London and he was acquitted. He added that his accusers should follow legal process if they believed their claims held water.

“I have cleared my name and myself in London. If anybody believes that they have any other case against me, they should come through due process. I am ready to challenge it. I am ready to face it without any problem.

“I have never in my life put my foot into the United States. I have never demanded for their sticker. I have been a businessman right from 18 years old. Up till today, I continue doing my business. My last submission is that I know nothing about what they are saying over there,” he said.

Kashamu claimed that the person involved in the drug case is his brother popularly known as Alhaji, he also denied that his brother which was speculated dead is alive. He urged the interviewer to take her time in finding the truth, if she has evidence in her disposal, she would realize he is not the person wanted.

Clarifying his position, the Ogun State incoming senator revealed that he has never been to mecca, so the alhaji named in the case is his brother who lost millions of dollars to interpol during the drug case.

The Senator-elect complained that the online medium, Sahara Reporters was not fair to him as he has advised the medium to be just in its reporting.

He also revealed that he had written to the US department of Justice to drop all cases against him as he has been exonerated in the past but to no avail. He assured that he started as a business man at the age of 18 and since then has been in business and has never involved himself in any business that is not according to the law.

Asking me to go to US is like jumping into fire - Kashamu

Kashamu files N20bn suit against Obasanjo

• asks for another N100m for malicious and reckless publication made against his name

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has indicated that he will not appear before a Federal Capital Territory High Court to defend a libel suit filed against him by a leader of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State, Mr. Buruji Kashamu.

Obasanjo and Buruji

Kashamu had filed the suit asking the court to award N20bn as aggravated and exemplary damages and another N100m against Obasanjo for “maliciously and recklessly” publishing a letter titled ‘Before it is too late’ addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan.

The PDP chief claimed that the words used by Obasanjo to describe him in the said letter which were published in print and electronic media, portrayed him “as a criminal wanted for drugs related offences in the United States of America and the United Kingdom.”

But Obasanjo’s lawyer, Mr. Gboyega Oyewole, told Justice Justice Valentine Ashi on Tuesday that a former National Auditor of the PDP, Bode Mustapha, would testify on behalf of the former president.

Oyewole did not give any reason why Obasanjo would not personally defend himself.

But he told the court that Mustapha was the only witness that would testify on behalf of the former president.

The proposed witness was in court on Tuesday.

At the Tuesday’s proceedings, Oyewole informed the court that he had filed an application seeking an order expunging some “scandalous and vexatious” claims against Obasanjo from the plaintiff’s reply to his clients statement of defence.

But he later withdrew the application after the plaintiff’s lawyer, Mr. Alex Izinyon (SAN) filed a counter-affidavit to the application contending that it would amount to the court prejudging the case if the application was to be taken before substantive suit.

In his writ of summons filed on his behalf, Kashamu said the criminal imputation made against him by Obasanjo had injured him.

Specifically, the plaintiff claims against the defendant as follows: “A declaration that the words complained of and published by the plaintiff against the defendant in a letter titled, ‘Before it is too late’, addressed to Dr. Goodluck E. Jonathan and dated December 2, 2013, which inter-alia carried criminal imputation against the plaintiff and published in several newspapers on December 12 is defamatory of the person of the plaintiff.

“An order awarding the sum of N20bn only to the plaintiff against the defendants as aggravated and exemplary damages against the defendant for libel falsely and maliciously published by the defendant against the plaintiff in the said letter.

“An order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendant, his agents, servants or privies from publishing or further publishing or cause to be published any defamatory words against the plaintiff to any person or persons; and the sum of N100m as cost of this action.”

The matter was adjourned till July 28 and 29 for hearing.

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Kashamu files N20bn suit against Obasanjo

PDP will take control of APC areas before, after 2015 election - Kashamu

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Abeokuta has vowed to take back the states being presently occupied by its opposition, All Progressives Congress before and after 2015 general election.

Kashamu Buruj

This was stated by the Chairman, Organisation and Mobilisation Committee in the South West, Prince Buruji Kashamu while receiving 1500 members of the APC led by their leader, Chief Kayode Ajibu  who defected to PDP at Ijebu North East Local Government Area of the state.

Kashamu boasted that despite PDP not being in government, it has taken control and authority in the country by God’s grace.

He said“I am proud to associate myself with PDP and I can tell you today authoritatively whether they like it or not, not only Amosun in Ogun State but, in the whole South_West, we are set in PDP to take over the South_West. I trust you, I believe in you.

“You believe in action. You believe in struggle. You want honest people. You know for sure when you are looking for action, there are plenty actions in PDP.

“You can see it clearly by yourself, we are not in the government but God has given us the control and authority. If it is like that, we must know that all of us have been working and doing the wish of the people in Ogun State.

“The people can see clearly that there is no any other party that is better than the national party which is PDP”, he said.

The state Chairman of the party, Bayo Dayo, said the party would be fair to the defectors .

He disclosed that the leader of the defectors until his defection, was a political appointee in the APC administration in the state.

Akibu in his remarks, promised to work for the success of the PDP in the next general elections.

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/05/e-will-capture-south-west-2015-kashamu/#sthash.jEJvDW1N.dpuf

PDP will take control of APC areas before, after 2015 election - Kashamu