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| Sen. Buruji Kashamu |
The Senator representing Ogun-East Senatorial District, Prince Buruji Kashamu, has denied an online publication that he had been approaching some front line Obas in Ogun State to join him in appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to accept him into the All Progressives Congress, APC, and to save him the embarrassment of being extradited to the USA over an alleged drug trafficking offence.
In a statement by his media aide, Austin Oniyokor, it was learnt that one yemojanews.com had reported Kashamu to have started lobbying the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo and the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, for the purposes.
Kashamu, in the statement, threatened to press charges against the online media if it failed to retract the said report within the days stipulated by the law.
Read full text:
RE: YEMOJANEWS' FALSE PUBLICATION AGAINST SENATOR KASHAMU
Our attention has been drawn to a wishy washy report by a budding online news portal,
www.yemojanews.com (what a name!) to the effect that Senator Buruji Kashamu approached the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo and the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, to help him appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to accept him into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and to starve off a purported extradition of the senator.
Ordinarily, we would have ignored this latest effort to blackmail the senator since we know where it is coming from (it would be addressed at the appropriate place and time), but for the wrong impression it might create in the mind of his associates, teeming supporters and admirers across the length and breadth of Ogun State, and beyond.
First, there is no iota of truth in the claim that Senator Kashamu has any plans to join the APC. He has stated time and again that his support for the anti-corruption war of the President should not be misconstrued as ditching his party, the PDP, for the APC. And that he remains and would always remain a member of the PDP. So, the issue of recruiting some people to soften the ground for his defection does not arise.
Secondly, the publishers of this piece of misguided report have only succeeded in exposing their ignorance of our jurisprudence. Otherwise, they should have known that no fresh extradition proceedings can be brought in a case that has been dismissed.
In this instance, besides the two British court judgments that established that the allegation against the senator was that of a "mistaken identity", the purported extradition proceedings commenced against the senator in the last days of the immediate past administration was dismissed by the court on the 1st of July, 2015, as "an abuse of court process", especially when the same issues as were put before the court had been decided by two British courts.
Is it not ludicrous for anyone to think that anyone would lobby our revered traditional rulers to beg Mr. President to bend the rules. Who, except the warped minds behind this fabricated report, does not know that Mr. President and the current Attorney-General of the Federation are men of integrity and apostles of the Rule of Law?
Even if anyone has a case against the senator in court, is it outside the court that the matter will be determined? Does the judiciary not have its own procedure and processes? Is it not distinct and separate from the executive or even the legislative arm of government? If anyone in the executive or legislature can easily influence them, then why do they lose their cases in court.
For the information of those who think they can soil the cordial relationship between Senator Kashamu and the royalty, I have piece of bad news for them: they have only succeeded in re-invigorating it.
Apart from being the Senator representing Awujale's domain, Senator Kashamu is a son and an in-law of the palace. Kabiyesi's younger brother (from the Shote family of Ijebu-Ode) married his immediate elder sister. Thus, it is only normal for him to maintain a cordial relationship with the palace of the Awujale and other royal fathers in the state.
While we regret any embarrassment that this fabricated lies may have caused the highly revered monarchs, we wish to serve a notice on the publishers of yemojanews that should they fail to retract the report within the days stipulated by law, they will soon hear from the senator's lawyers, so that they can substantiate their claims in the open court.
On the activities of Omoilu Foundation, we wish to state that no amount of lies and blackmail told by idiots and spread by the ignoramus can obliterate the positive works and testimonies of the foundation. The Omoilu Foundation is an idea whose time has come. No force on earth can stop it!
Signed:
Austin Oniyokor,
Media Adviser to Distinguished Senator Buruji Kashamu
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