Hushpuppi: Extraditing Kyari to US not easy – Ozekhome

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Mike Ozekhome, SAN, has said it would not be easy to extradite Deputy Commissioner of Police and former Head of the IGP Intelligence Response Team, Abba Kyari, to the United States despite his indictment by that country’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI.

Ozekhome hinged his position on necesary legal preocesses, which would take time to conclude.

Speaking on the the implication of Kyari’s indictment to the laws of Nigeria and the Extradition Treaty between the country and the United States on Channels TV programme on Tuesday, the legal luminary cited the protracted extradition battle that Sen. Buruji Kashamu fought, which could not end until his death years later, adding that from legal viewpoint extradition was not that simple.

According to Ozekhome, the laws of Nigeria hold that Kyari remained innocent until proven guilty.

The senior advocate said: “In this very case irrespective of whatever investigations the FBI may have done, it may be the best policemen in the world, that is of no moments when it comes to how DCP Abba Kyari would be handed over to them.

“You must now come back to the Extradition Treaty and the extradition law of Nigeria of 2004, the US government must first make a formal written request through their consular office and ambassador, asking that we want this man back to the US from Nigeria.

“They (US) must state the offence he was alleged to have committed in America; they must attach the certificate of conviction in America; they must state the extract of the law in America which allows extradition and also state that the offence he committed as an offence in the United States of America.

“The Attorney General has a crucial role to play, if they want to save Nigeria’s image, to make Abba Kyari not to be subjected to an unknown procedure, the attorney general is to take over the entire matter, look at the reasons Abba Kyari is being wanted.

“Are they satisfied that he is being wanted not of political reason; not for his religious beliefs; not for his gender, are you satisfy that there are laws there that will grant him fairness; are you satisfied that when he comes in he will just be taken to face the law and not to be put through unnecessary long detention?

“Are you satisfied that the laws which you want to try Abba Kyari will not be one that will subject him to a different body of laws?

When the Attorney General is satisfied with all these, then he can approach a magistrate court or a federal high court judge to say it wanted a warrant of arrest against Abba Kyari and Abba Kyari will be detained.

“He has two weeks (15 days) to extradite Abba Kyari. If the magistrate or Judge has discovered that certain prerequisites that ought to be done, have not been fulfilled, he can refuse to issue the warrant order or Abba Kyari can go to court and disqualify his extradition.

“That is why, if you remember the ground that Sen. Buruji Kashamu’s extradition brouhaha took place for more than five to six years and we were never ever able to extradite him to the United States, that is how the extradition treaty between Nigeria and America is. It is not a new thing.”