'I'll kill people before I'm arrested', Senator says

The Senator representing Ogun East in the upper legislative chamber, Buruji Kashamu, has promised that "three, four or five people will die" before he is extradited to the United States to face drug related charges.

Justices Okon Abang and Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos; in separate judgments in May and June of 2015, had issued orders barring the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) from arresting Kashamu.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the High Court in Abuja had also dismissed an NDLEA application seeking Kashamu's arrest for extradition.

Last week, a U.S court however ruled that Kashamu has a case to answer with respect to drug offences committed in the '90s.

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The Nigerian lawmaker has denied his involvement in drug trafficking, saying his late brother, Adewale Kashamu, who bears close resemblance to him, was the culprit.

"My brother was living in Chicago , I sent him to school. He is very well educated. He was the one having girlfriends there; he was the one who caused a lot of problems", Kashamu said in a statement sent to Pulse.

"Even when I was in London, they still traced almost $2M into his back account while I was in prison; they still continued doing the transaction. If you go through the last British judgment, it is there. The Interpol people were the ones who went to the bank and got all the information, and carried all the documents, they came to London and gave evidence in court".

Kashamu told Punch newspaper that former President Olusegun Obasanjo is behind his travails.

"Obasanjo has been pushing them (U.S Law Enforcement) using one a former Ambassador of the United States; he's the one pushing everybody, meeting all these judges, but what have I done?"

Kashamu added that he doesn't believe that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari will do something as drastic as forcefully extraditing him to the United States because that will be illegal.

The Senator says he'll call on the services of the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) if anyone tries to extradite him to the U.S.

"There is no extradition that can be brought against me again. The only thing they can do is to watch and catch me on the road; take me to the airport or or throw me inside a vessel and take me through the But I am not going to let that happen.

"I don't go to the beach, and now I will go and hire OPC, may be like 40. I will load them in my vehicle, because the day we meet, one has to kill one because I am not ready to go anywhere. Before that happens, maybe about three, four or five people will die".

In 2015, operatives of the NDLEA stormed Kashamu's apartment in Lekki, Lagos in a bid to arrest him, but the Senator locked himself in until the courts came to his rescue.

The NDLEA has insisted that it will stick to the extradition treaty entered between Nigeria and the United States in Kashamu's case.

The NDLEA has also vowed to make sure the judgments of courts in Nigeria stopping the agency from arresting Kashamu, are vacated.

The agency says the judgment of the U.S courts with regards to Kashamu's case, have only bolstered its position.