Lawyers accuse Kashamu of alleged assassination attempt
…Report Senator to IGP, others
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By Olusola AJIBIKE
NIGERIA: DEFENCE lawyers in the suit involving the Senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Buruji Kashamu, have reported the lawmaker to the Ogun State Police Commissioner, Mr. Ahmed Iliyasu.
The lawyers from Edwards Group Chambers said that the petition to Iliyasu was necessitated following threat to their lives and attempt to murder them.
They alleged in the letter dated January 30, 2017 that they have evidence that Kashamu had contracted some suspected hired killers to kill them.
According to them, the plan was due to their being counsels to a defendant in a case on the alleged link of Kashamu to drug related offences in the United States of America and United Kingdom.
Only recently, Kashamu had dragged a member of House of Representatives, Hon. Ladi Adebutu, to an Ogun State High Court 5 in Abeokuta, alleging in a suit number AB/297/2016 that the lawmaker in the lower chamber called him a fugitive and drug baron.
Copies of the petition were forwarded to the Inspector General of Police, Senate President, Chief Judge of Ogun State, Director of State Security Services and Director, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
The lawyers alleged that their main offence against Kashamu was because they are the defence counsels to Adebutu, who was elected into the National Assembly on the ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) like the Senator.
The petition signed by Kayode Akinsola on behalf of the other lawyers, alleged that after the court proceeding on January 25, suspected thugs believed to be in sympathy with Kashamu, who were brought to court by him, pursued them and fired gun shots into their vehicles.
They stated that the attempted assassination was the fallout of the cross-examination on Kashamu, who is a claimant in the suit.
They said: “Unfortunately, the rigorous cross-examination of Buruji Kashamu by Chief Edwards Odugbesan on matters that bother on the alleged criminal atrocities of Senator Buruji Kashamu in the United States and United Kingdom purportedly infuriated Senator Buruji Kashamu and his teeming supporters in court, majority of whom we later discovered to be hired thugs of Senator Buruji Kashamu sometime last week.”
“Suffice it to say that the aftermath of the close of proceedings of 25th January, 2017 witnessed an ugly situation where thugs of the popular politician ran after our vehicles and shot to the air somewhere before getting to Kuto, Abeokuta, Ogun State, forcing us to scamper into safety and narrowly escaped being killed,” the lawyers alleged.
They further explained that the development was further aggravated by Kashamu’s threat to take human lives, which was published in the The Punch of Monday, January 30, “wherein he vowed to kill up to five persons before he can be forcefully extradited to the United States of America to answer to charges of his alleged involvement in banned substances.”
While seeking police protection on the next date of hearing on February 3 because they have become target of attack by Kashamu, they said that “it will not be out of place to state that the defendant and all the lawyers representing the defendant are endangered species and prime targets of Senator Buruji Kashamu’s thugs and assassins therewith.”
They stressed: “As a corollary to the foregoing, we apply for provision of adequate security cover and orderly for all the lawyers representing the defendant before, during and after court proceedings.
“We equally invite you to investigate the alleged intention of Senator Buruji Kashamu as to the names of those he intend to kill in the aforesaid national publication and occurrence of the 25 January, 2016.”
When contacted, Kashamu stated that the allegation was false, saying that the petition was due to the lawyers’ panic strategy over the case in court.
The Senator, who spoke through his media aide, Austin Oniyokor, said that the allegation was laughable.
He queried why it took the lawyers over a week after the hearing to write a petition, if truly the alleged threat occurred.
“There was nothing like attack on anybody. We came to Abeokuta and after the hearing and left peaceful. Even we met the governor’s convoy and can testify to our peaceful exit,” Kashamu said.
According to him, the allegation was nothing but absolute falsehood, adding that if such attack had happened it would have been reported in the media and a report lodged at the police station.
“The truth of the matter is that there was not such incident,” he said, adding: “A case came up a week ago, and they are now writing a petition over what did not happen.”
“This is to tell you that it is a panic strategy, knowing judicial doom which awaits them,” he explained, while challenging the petitioners to substantiate their claim if they have any.
According to him, the lawyers were only making noise over nothing.
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