Ngige’s comment contemptuous of court ----Kashamu

(Nigeria) Senator Buruji Kashamu, representing Ogun State East senatorial district, has described comments credited to Chief Emeka Ngige, SAN, that United Kingdom courts did not exonerate him (Kashamu).

Mr Austin Oniyokor, media aide to Kashamu in a statement in Lagos on Sunday, said "We have monitored media reports credited to Chief Emeka Ngige, SAN, in which he seeks to divert attention from the illegalities of the former Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, Mr. Mohammed  Bello and the Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Mr. Ahmadu Giade and to rehash the allegation that have been rejected by British courts and recently by Nigeria courts also.

"Emeka Ngige claims that these rejected allegations are the basis of an appeal he has filed against orders and judgments of the Federal High Court. The mischief is clear because no notice of appeal has been served on any party yet Ngige has released documents to the media which he claims are Notices of Appeal. This is clearly wrong.

"It is for this reason we question the authority of Emeka Ngige and Gboyega Oyewole to represent a non-existent AGF. While Ngige is a well-known lawyer of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Oyewole has represented the former President Olusegun Obasanjo in several cases in the past, including the N20billion libel case that Senator Kashamu withdrew recently.

They were conscripted by the Chief Executive Officer of Heyden Petroleum, Mr. Dapo Abiodun, who was defeated by Senator Kashamu in the March 28, 2015  National Assembly election.

Contrary to the lies being peddled in the media, information available to us revealed that the two lawyers were not briefed by the Office of the AGF and Minister of Justice – at least as at Friday when they appeared in court. If they say they were, we challenge them to produce the authorisation and evidence of payment made to that effect. We do know that they were hired by Abiodun, who is desperate to get through the back door a mandate he could not get in a free and fair election.

"It has also come to our knowledge that in the absence of an Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the said Abiodun has been mounting pressures on the Permanent Secretary and Solicitor-General of the Federation, Mr. Abdullahi Yola, to give the brief to the APC lawyers. Abiodun offered to pick their bills.

"Thankfully, as an honourable and God-fearing man, the Solicitor-General of the Federation has not given in to Abiodun’s pressures when these lawyers only gate-crashed into the matter and sought to ambush the court on June 19, 2015.

We have read the comments credited to Ngige that “Kashamu was not tried before the British courts. He only went through extradition proceeding and the extradition application failed based on the facts before the court. Now, that does not and cannot constitute a bar on further extradition proceeding or trial for drug crime in any other country or other court.”

That is Ngige’s legal opinion which has been rejected by the Nigeria courts. In the absence of an appeal, such comments could be contempt of court.

"In any event, Chief Ngige has evidently not read the judgements he is misinterpreting.

The English court did not merely find that the evidence was not enough; the court positively found that it was another person (not Senator Buruji Kashamu) that committed the offence and proceeded to describe the person in its judgement. It is that person the United States authority wants not Senator Kashamu.

"That is clearly an obstacle to any further proceedings against Senator Kashamu. If a court found that Emeka Ngige was never governor of Anambra State but it was his brother, Chris Ngige, would it not be stupidity for someone who did not appeal against that finding to come back again to say he believes that Emeka Ngige was governor of Anambra State?

"In his judgment, delivered in the second extradition proceedings on January 10, 2003, District Judge Tim Workman found as follows: “As a result of the evidence that the defence has placed before me and the evidence which the government has tendered in rebuttal, I find the following facts: that the defendant has a brother, Alhaji Adewale Kashamu who bears a striking resemblance to that of his brother; I am satisfied that the defendant's brother was one of the co-conspirators in the drugs importation which involved Catherine and Ellen Wolters; I am satisfied that the defendant informed both Interpol and the NDLEA of the activities of this group.”

"Which part of this judgment does Ngige not understand?  He is evidently pursuing a political agenda not a legal brief in making those comments."