Senator denies saying people will die before he can be extradited

monjola sotubo

January 31, 2017 10:57 AM

Kashamu is said to have threatened that he would hire members of vigilante group, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) to protect him from extradition.

Senator Buruji Kashamu

Senator Buruji Kashamu has denied reports that he said

Kashamu is said to have made the threat while speaking to the Punch adding that he would hire members of vigilante group, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) to protect him from extradition.

“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 Cotonou or throw me inside a vessel and take me through the Atlantic Ocean. But I am not going to let that happen,” the senator supposedly said.

“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,” he added.

Kashamu’s spokesman, Austin Oniyorkor, has however said that the senator “did not say anything of such.”

“The reporter will be remorseful about what he wrote. He'd promised to rectify it by way of doing a feature or something. This was an interaction that was held with about nine judiciary correspondents from different media houses,” Oniyorkor said.

“We're picking it with them and they said they're making some amends,” he added.

Efforts to extradite Kashamu were revived after the United States Court of Appeal ruled, on January 26, that he must face drug trafficking charges.

U.S investigators say Kashamu led a heroin trafficking ring which inspired the hit TV show “Orange is the New Black.”

The Nigerian lawmaker has however denied the allegations, saying his late brother, Adewale Kashamu, who bears close resemblance to him, was the culprit.

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Several attempts to extradite Kashamu in 2015 failed and were permanently halted by injunctions from three Nigerian courts.

monjola sotubo