... As court restrained IG from arresting Kashamu

President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday advised the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, not to single out his administration in any probe he may want to carry out after his inauguration on Friday. He said all those advising Buhari to probe his administration must also advise him to extend his probe beyond his regime or else, the probe will be seen as a witch-hunt.

Jonathan made his position known at the valedictory session of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) which he presided over at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. He also said those calling for his administration’s probe should add that the probe should be extended to the way oil wells and fields were allocated in the past.

A former Minister of Defence, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, had over the weekend joined the growing number of persons calling on Buhari to probe the Jonathan administration.

Jonathan said, “Some people are even calling for the probe of this government. I agree that in Nigeria, there are a number of things that we will probe; very many things.

“Even debts owed by states and this nation from 1960 up to this time. They are saying it is Jonathan’s administration that is owing all the debts.

“I believe that anybody calling for probe must ensure that these probes are extended beyond the Jonathan administration, otherwise to me, it will be a witch-hunt. If you are very sincere, then it is not just the Jonathan’s administration that should be probed.

“A number of things have gone wrong and we have done our best to fix them. The Attorney General is aware of the massive judgement debts, if we aggregate all of them, it is about $1bn. How did we come to this kind of huge judgement debts? These issues should be probed.

“How do you allocate our oil wells, oil fields, marginal wells and others? Do we follow our laws? All these should be probed. I believe all these and many more areas should be looked at.”

Jonathan said regardless of what critics might say about his administration, he and his team had done well under a difficult situation. He advised those who criticise him to endeavour to compare his administration’s performance with those of the administrations before him on a sector-by-sector basis.

The President listed some of the daunting challenges faced by his administration to include the prolonged industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, terror attacks and the ongoing fuel scarcity. Jonathan described the ongoing fuel scarcity as an act of sabotage.

The president claimed that those who felt they must bring his government to its knees were the ones behind the scarcity. He wondered why marketers would choose to go on strike a few days to the end of his administration.

“Even this last fuel scarcity, to me one can clearly say it was an act of sabotage. This government has few days to go, that is definitely not the time you expect massive strikes, using marketers and unions. Unions asking for increase in salaries at a time oil prices have dropped and volumes have dropped,” he said.

The President made it clear that he had not dissolved his cabinet as all ministers were expected to attend the inauguration dinner on Thursday in their official capacity.

Earlier, the Vice-President, Namadi Sambo, had thanked Jonathan for finding him worthy to be his running mate in 2011 and 2015. He said he did not at any time lobby the President for the position. He promised to remain a member of the Jonathan family and his ambassador anywhere he found himself.

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), said the administration had impacted on the lives of millions of Nigerians.

In the meantime, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, restrained the Inspector General of Police, IG, and  Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, from arresting the Senator-elect for Ogun East Senatorial District,  Prince Buruji Kashamu, for onward extradition to the United States of America over alleged drug-related offences.

Meanwhile, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, yesterday recanted its stance on Tuesday’s court order by another Federal High Court when it pledged to obey  the order of the court and vacate Kashamu’s residence.

Justice Okon Abang in his judgement in a fundamental human rights enforcement suit by Kashamu, challenging plans to extradite him to the US, held that the agencies must comply with the letters of the Extradition Act if they must arrest or extradite the senator -elect.

The court further restrained the IG from withdrawing the security details currently attached to the applicant.

The court also directed the Clerk of the National Assembly to accord the applicant all he deserved as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The judge, who noted that he cannot perpetually restrain the respondents from arresting Kashamu, said “the respondents cannot be perpetually restrained from arresting the applicants but are restrained from unlawful arrest of the applicant without compliance to the provision of the Extradition Act.”

Respondents in the suit are  Chairman, NDLEA;  Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC;  Director General, Department of State Security, DSS; the Interpol, National Central Bureau, NCB and Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF.

Others are the Clerk of the National Assembly, the National Security Adviser to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, Nigeria Custom Services, the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.

Kashamu had prayed the court to restrain the defendants and their agents from arresting, detaining or otherwise effecting his abduction upon spurious allegation.

The IG and the Interpol, in their counter affidavit in opposition to the applicant’s suit, had averred that no cause of action was declared against them in the suit and that the judge cannot sustain the suit based on speculations.

NDLEA in its counter-affidavit had averred that it had not received any instruction from the AGF or anywhere to extradite the applicant, adding that it was not aware of any plan to forcefully transport Kashamu to the United States for prosecution over alleged drug-related offences.

NDLEA argued that sometimes in 2003, the applicant was discharged of drug offences by a United Kingdom court over mistaken identity, urged the court to strike out the suit on the ground that it didn’t disclose a reasonable cause of action against it.

The EFCC Chairman and the Director General of DSS, in their counter affidavits, averred that they were not in collusion with the United States Government or former President Olusegun Obasanjo or anyone to kidnap or arrest the applicant.

We’ll abide by court’s decision—NDLEA

NDLEA’s head of Public Affairs, Mitchell Ofoyeju, in a statement, said: “The agency will obey the decision of the court of competent jurisdiction on the ongoing case involving senator-elect, Buruji Kashamu. As a government agency and a law enforcement institution that has respect for the rule of law, the NDLEA will abide by the decisions of a competent court.

“This is a legal issue and the agency has windows of opportunities to explore legally in advancing its case. NDLEA will not violate court orders or take law into its hands in enforcing its statutory responsibilities.”

Punch With additional reports from Vanguard