Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Organization and Mobilization Committee in the Southwest, Prince Buruji Kashamu, has challenged former President Olusegun Olusegun to produce the letter by the United States government requesting for his extradition or shut up.
Kashamu denied Obasanjo’s claim that he was a criminal and leader of Southwest PDP. The former president had in his latest letter to the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, dated January 7 declared himself suspended from the party until something was done to take away Southwest leadership of PDP from Kashamu. He accused Kashamu of being a criminal wanted abroad and wondered how he remained in PDP as its Southwest zonal leader.
But in his reaction to Obasanjo’s letter, Kashamu said he did nothing to deserve the attack of the former president and expressed confidence that he would triumph at the end of the day. His words: “But if the truth be told, I am not the architect of whatever political woes that he is suffering today. Like David, I am just a tool in the hands of the Almighty Allah (Subhanau wa tahala). I am too small to confront a Goliath like him but for the Almighty Allah who is the supporter of the suppressed and the oppressed.
Kashamu also denied being the leader of the party in the Southwest, saying “I am just one of the party’s foot soldiers in the zone.”
On the issue of his alleged indictment by the United States, he said there was no request for his extradition. “For the umpteenth time, there is no request for my extradition for any offence whatsoever. I have challenged him to produce the request for extradition, if there is any. Indeed, contrary to his lies that I am wanted in the United States for some offences, the purported and over-flogged case is that of mistaken identity, for which I had been tried and discharged after my innocence was established by the British courts. I am already in court in the US asking that the earlier accusation (not conviction) against me be quashed. That process is ongoing,” he maintained.
“As to the Nigerian leg of the issue, as I have often stated that I was the one that took the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) to court in 2009/2010 to ask for a judicial pronouncement on the powers of the AGF under the Extradition Act when I got information that some of my political adversaries were pressuring the AGF to allegedly cause my extradition on the basis of the mistaken identity case referred to above.
All I am doing, in conjunction with other like minds, is to champion a new order whereby our people would be free from the vice-grip of some self-styled political leaders who sit in the comfort of their homes to determine our collective fate, with its attendant consequences on the development and growth of the Southwest zone. They do not like a bold and courageous challenge to their outdated and warped style of leadership. Instead of coming home to work for the growth of the party, they have elected to mass around the Presidency where they go from one office to the other, blackmailing me and others in order to protect their ‘pot of soup, ’ Kashamu added.
“My mission is to mobilise the mass of the people, return the party to them and involve them in decision-making process in the overall interest of the people of the Southwest geo-political zone. And no amount of blackmail, campaign of calumny and intimidation will stop me, for as my people would say, “Ibaje eniyan ko da ise Oluwa duro” (meaning “man’s slandering of his fellow man doesn’t stop God’s work in one’s life”), he said philosophically.
A close aide of the former president confirmed that Obasanjo wrote the letter to Tukur. “Yes, I confirm to you that Baba wrote the letter. And let me add that he (Obasanjo) has not left the party as was insinuated after the letter was published in some newspapers,” the source said. He added that Obasanjo would return to the party as soon as some of these issues are addressed by the party.
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