The troubled election of Senator Buruji Kashamu as senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District has finally been annulled by the election Petition Tribunal in Ogun State.
Kashamu’s election, was annulled along with those of Honourable Adekoya Adesegun, a member of House of Representatives from Ijebu East/Ijebu North/Ogun waterside, as well as five others in the state house of assembly. The tribunal has therefore ordered a rerun election within 90-days.
Rerun in the Senatorial constituency involves110 polling units where irregularities took place. The senatorial constituency has 1,135 polling units.
Kashamu, who is wanted in the United States for drug-related offences, has been fighting his extradition to the US. His electoral loss is seen as a big blow to his spirited efforts to take shelter under the nation’s upper legislative chamber.
In a statement by his media aide, Austin Oniyokor, the wanted Senator denied that he was sacked by the tribunal. “it could not be said to have sacked Kashamu because, according to it, after the removal of voided votes, Kashamu is still leading with 5,179 votes.
According to the tribunal’s findings, Kashamu has 75,856 votes against his closest rival, Dapo Abiodun’s 70,677 votes.
Not taking the reversal of fortunes lightly, Kashamu has vowed to challenge the ruling in the higher court.
Mr Kashamu and 14 others in 1998 were charged by a US federal grand jury for their alleged involvement in an international conspiracy to smuggle heroin into the US. But the politician, a major financier of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South West, allegedly fled to the UK where the efforts made by the US to extradite him failed, before he returned to Nigeria.
In the decision of the US District Court, last May Judge Charles Norgle accused Buruji Kashamu of document forgery as well as political pressure, to frustrate his trial in the US.
Earlier in the year, Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High court in Lagos ruled out a decision forbidding the Nigeria Police, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, the State Security Service and the Nigerian Customs Service to arrest and extradite Buruji Kashamu to the United States. The judgement ended days of siege on the fugitive’s Lagos home where he was to have been arrested for onward extradition to the US.
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