Buruji Kashamu: 10 Things You Should Know About The Late Ogun Senator
Senator Buruji Kashamu died on Saturday due to COVID-19 complications at a Lagos hospital.
Below are some things you should know about the late senator:
- Kashamu represented Ogun East senatorial district from 2015 to 2019.
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Kashamu was the Ogun State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 election.
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He was indicted for conspiracy to import and distribute heroin in 1998 by a grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois, US.
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On December 18, 1998, the UK’s Metropolitan Police arrested Kashamu, who was travelling with a Benin passport.
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He returned to Nigeria in 2003 from Britain after a British court refused a US extradition request over uncertainty about Kashamu’s identity.
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Kashamu had told the court that he was not the leader of the drugs smuggling conspiracy but his brother, Adewale Kashamu, who he closely resembles.
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In 2015, there was a standoff at his residence after the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency attempted to arrest him for extradition to the US.
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A federal high court in Abuja in May 2020, barred the FG from extraditing him.
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He sued former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, for libel for stating that Kashamu was a fugitive from US justice.
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Kashamu was the founder of Western Lotto Limited, one of Nigeria’s lottery operators.
Source: THE PUNCH
