Court orders NDLEA to vacate Kashamu’s residence

A Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the more than 50 operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to immediately vacate the Lagos residence of the senator-elect for Ogun East Senatorial District, Mr Buruji Kashamu.

Justice Ibrahim Buba in a ruling on Tuesday also barred any move to arrest Kashamu pending the ruling on a fundamental enforcement action which he filed before Justice Okon Abang of the same court.

Abang had, on May 8, fixed Wednesday, May 27, to rule on the said application filed by Kashamu against the Attorney-General of the Federation and 13 others.

Kashamu had been seeking an order of the court restraining the defendants from giving effect to an alleged plot to abduct and forcibly transport him to the United States before his inauguration as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The NDLEA, whose operatives had laid siege to Kashamu’s residence in Lagos since Saturday, May 23, said it had received a formal extradition request on Kashamu from the government of the United States of America.

The agency’s operatives came to court on May 25, to secure an extradition order.

The anti-narcotics agency claimed before the court that the US government had requested for Kashamu to stand trial on alleged drug-trafficking offences.

However, the NDLEA, which from all indications had yet to secure a warrant of arrest on Kashamu, failed to bring him to court on May 25, but continued to lay siege to his house.

Buba pronounced the action of the NDLEA operatives as subjudice and ordered the men of the Nigerian Police Force to ensure that the NDLEA operatives vacate Kashamu’s premises “without a free for all.”

“I am of the opinion that the justice of this case at this point demands that the men of the NDLEA numbering up to 50 or more stationed at the residence of the applicant are ordered to vacate the premises in view of the subsisting order made by Abang.

“The parties shall stay all actions pending the determination of the application before Abang.

“The Nigeria Police Force is directed or informed that there is an alleged contempt proceedings instituted by the applicant against the respondents, who are parties to ensure that orders of this court are obeyed, as it is the duty of all authorities and principalities and agents of government to obey court order.

“There shall be no room for a free for all,” Buba held.