He sat on a dark couch in his ex­pansive office, casually attired in a light green T-shirt and dark trousers. His vivacious mien and calm, tranquil demeanour painted the pic­ture of a man at his ease, his mind plagued with neither pain nor perturbation.
But that was scarcely so. For Prince Buruji Kashamu, businessman and chairman of the Organisation and Mobilisation Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South West, it was time to react to another attack on him by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. And this time, the Ijebu-Igbo-born chairman of Kasmal Group pulled no punches while defending himself.
On Sunday, President Obasanjo had made a biting allusion to Kashamu in a statement issued in Abeokuta. The former president had, while responding to pleas by the leadership of the PDP, asserted that one of the reasons why he was not too comfortable with the party was that a man that had been indicted on drug-related offences by the United States had found a safe haven in the PDP and had even become the party’s leader in the South West, Obasanjo’s home base.
Said the former president: “There are, for me, issues of principle, morality, honour, integrity, commitment and character which are paramount. For instance, as a former president of Nigeria, the chairman of West Africa Commission on Drugs and a member of Global Commission on Drugs, I cannot accept that the zonal leader of my political party and, worse still, in my zone, will be an indicted drug baron wanted in America.
“How do I explain that to friends outside Nigeria? This is only one of the many issues that I have pointed and still pointing out.”
But Kashamu would have none of that. He accused Obasanjo of lacking the rectitude to make such allegations, insisting that it was shocking that the former president never saw him as a drug baron while he helped Obasanjo fight and conquer his perceived political adversaries in his home state.
Kashamu said Obasanjo was fighting like a bull in a china shop because the former president had lost relevance in the PDP in Ogun State and the South-West. The businessman insisted that Obasanjo saw him as the architect of the former president’s political woes, the one that plotted and executed Obasanjo’s ouster as the unrivalled PDP godfather in the South West.
The prominent hotelier said it was hypocritical of Obasanjo to now label him a wanted drug baron when the former president was fully aware that he, Kashamu, had been cleared by a competent court in the United Kingdom over his alleged involvement in drug-related offences. He said it was all the more shocking because the former president was still in office and was aware that some federal agencies actually gave evidence in Kashamu’s favour while his extradition case was being heard in a London court a few years ago.
“What surprised me was that Baba Obasanjo, that is supposed to be one of the fathers of Nigeria, especially in the South West, would continue to make unfounded allegations against me. And he was talking about morals, about integrity. He is a joker,” said Kashamu, his voice rising a bit.
He wondered why Obasanjo would want to bring President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP into the fray. According to him, President Jonathan and the PDP had nothing to do with his case with the American authorities, noting that even if there were any extradition requests from the American authorities, such would be directed to the Attorney-General, not Jonathan or the PDP. He contended also that an international warrant would have to be issued against him. He said Obasanjo was quite aware that the international warrant issued against him by the United States had since been cancelled, insisting that all the relevant agencies, including Interpol, had cleared him of any wrongdoing.
“Where is that letter from the German Embassy,” he asked suddenly, beckoning to an aide. A copy of the letter was quickly fetched. It was from the Consulate-General of the Federal Republic of Germany, signed by Matten, the First Secretary, and issued on September 15, 2008. The letter noted that Kashamu’s visa application was initially denied as a result of a search warrant initiated against Kashamu by the U.S. government.
“Based on your letter dated June 16, 2008 and the additional documents provided by you, the Consulate-General took up the case with the German Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BKA). After requesting additional information on this warrant, the BKA was informed by the U.S. authorities at the end of August that its search warrant has been cancelled. As a consequence, the equivalent search warrant of Interpol has also been withdrawn with immediate effect,” the letter partly reads.
Kashamu said without an international warrant against him, it would be preposterous for anyone to label him a fugitive.
He explained further: “Without an international warrant, America cannot just jump and arrest me. If they have any case, they must issue an international warrant against me and then request for extradition. The Attorney General will then send the letter to the NDLEA and that agency will invite me and charge me to court. Then, the process will begin. So, there is a process. The Nigerian government will then appoint a prosecutor on behalf of America or that country that requests for the extradition. The prosecutor will be relating directly through the Attorney General to America. And from there, they will start to prosecute that person.
“But the act of extradition is identification. If you’re going to prosecute any case, the accused person must be identified. They will find out if the person is the one they’re looking for, then they will want to see the evidence. If the person can’t be fetched, they will ask for his photograph. They may also ask for the voice recording of that person. If you can prove that the photograph is totally wrong, then it is wrong identification. That means the case is over. The warrant they issued against me has been cancelled when I was discharged by a court in the United Kingdom. So, what is Baba Obasanjo talking about? My brother, how does this matter concern President Jonathan and the PDP? Anybody can be indicted; anybody can be accused of any offence. An indictment does not make you a criminal. There are a lot of people that have been indicted and are walking around. But because they have no problems with some big men, no one is accusing them of any wrongdoing.”
Kashamu said he had been fighting the United States authorities over the issue of mistaken identity for long. According to him, he had never been in the United States, noting that it was his brother that was accused of drug offences in that country. He said when he was arrested in the UK at the instigation of the United States, he spent four years in incarceration while investigations were conducted on him. He said the UK officials eventually discovered that he was not the man being sought by the Americans and was subsequently discharged. The businessman, who holds Nigerian and Beninese nationalities, asserted that he was arrested in Liverpool, England while travelling on his Beninese passport.
“The Interpol in the Republic of Benin invited me and questioned me. I told them I’m not a drug dealer, I’m a businessman. If you want my brother, look for my brother. I had an office in Belgium, I had an office in my house in London. I deal in cotton. I have a big factory that produces raw cotton in Liverpool. When I was stopped, I told them I had nothing to do in the United States. It was my brother that was always going to America. I thought it was a joke. They showed me the local warrant based on the international warrant, which has now been cancelled. We were on the case for about four years. I was eventually discharged. And because the case has been won, the warrant is dead. So, if Obasanjo is saying America should come for me, on which warrant are they going to act? Are they going to issue another warrant on the same dead case,” he queried.
The United States government had in 1999 ensured Kashamu’s arrest in London and sought his extradition to the United States to face trial over his alleged involvement in drug-related offences with three others – Ellen Walters, Catherine Walters and Nicholas Fillimore. But after an identification parade involving Kashamu’s photograph and those of eight others, the three co-accused persons reportedly failed to identify Kashamu as their co-conspirator, who they referred to as ‘Alaji’.
While ruling on the extradition matter between the Government of the United States versus Buruji Kashamu in the Bow Street magistrate Court, Judge Tim Workman had noted that several witnesses provided evidence. One of them, Mr. Morohundiya, an official of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, had told the court that Kashamu was an informant of the agency and that the agency was aware of the existence of his brother, one Alhaji Adewale Adeshina Kashamu who was wanted by the agency for drug offences. The trial judge also said the former head of the Directorate of Investigations of the NDLEA, one Ruben Nwako, also confirmed that Kashamu helped the agency in providing information that helped in fighting drug crime. The judge quoted Nwako as saying that the agency was aware of the existence of Kashamu’s brother, Adewale Kashamu, who was regarded as a drug dealer.
Judge Workman noted also that the officer in charge of the Interpol office in Benin Republic, also gave evidence about Buruji Kashamu’s assistance to the police, especially by providing information about the criminal activities of his brother and others, referring to documents dated 1993 and 1994. The judge noted that even though one Mr. Coleman, acting for the US government had challenged the documents, he found no evidence to support that the documents were fabricated. He said further letters from the NDLEA confirmed that Buruji Kashamu’s brother, Adewale, was the drug dealer, adding that his auto shop in Lagos was closed down.
The judge said the identification evidence being paraded by the US authorities was incredible and valueless. Kashamu Buruji was thereafter discharged.
The businessman insisted that Obasanjo was fully aware of the trajectory of his ordeals and his innocence, leading to his discharge by the London court. He wondered why the ex-president had been singing the same songs on Kashamu’s purported indictment and also labouring hard to bring President Jonathan and the PDP into the matter.
He said it was curious that Obasanjo, who spent eight years as a civilian president after his first outing as a military Head of State, was accusing President Jonathan of not shipping him, Kashamu, to the United States. According to him, if the United States still had an issue with him, the country should go through the right process, via the Foreign Minister and the Attorney General, noting that President Jonathan had nothing to do with the case.
The businessman, while explaining the cordial relationship that existed between him and Obasanjo, said the former president was, at a time, his father. “I have been in Obasanjo’s house. I have eaten there. When Obasanjo was President, I was going to his house every week. One of my kinsmen from Ijebu-Igbo was his aide, and he was close to the former president. So I was always visiting his house. Obasanjo even sent me to do some jobs for him when he was president, and I gave him the report. He was in government when the case was going on in London. Obasanjo directed the NDLEA to go and give evidence in the case in the British court. So, how can he pretend not to know that I was discharged? Even recently, NDLEA said they had a list of all the people that were involved in drugs in the United States, and that my name had never been there. I am not wanted in the United States. If I had won a case in London in 2003, the US government did not appeal. They have not appealed. So, what’s the problem again? The court said it was an abuse of process.”
He said he fell out with Obasanjo because the former president sees himself as the god that will determine everyone’s destiny. “He said Jonathan must not run for a second term. Why should he say that? What moral right does he have to tell Jonathan not to contest again? This was somebody that did two terms and still wanted a third term. So, where is his integrity?
“Obasanjo said, how was he going to tell his friends outside the country that his party had someone that was indicted by America. That’s the height of hypocrisy. He is a deceiver. He was the one shielding criminals when he was in government. Many of those foreign friends of his, who have become presidents, governors, etc, they don’t have money. They make money only through consultancy. But they should ask, what was Obasanjo doing with me during his own tenure? They should ask him why he allowed me into his bedroom, his sitting room and his office. Why did he introduce me to former Governors Oni, Oyinlola, Akala and others? Even the present Minister of Agriculture, Dr Adesina, and Navy Captain Olubolade, Obasanjo introduced me to all of them. He said I was the one that saved him from Gbenga Daniel. He should tell those friends of his how he came about his sudden wealth.
“I fell out with Obasanjo in 2012 after I took over the Ogun State PDP structure from Gbenga Daniel, and Obasanjo said we should use the platform to support Olurin. I told him that Olurin would lose, that people would not vote for him because of his age. But he told me to shut up. After Olurin lost, Obasanjo tried to take the structure from me and give someone else. And he was also telling us that he would not allow President Jonathan to do a second term, and that he would tell us the person we would work for. But that particular man who he said we should work for has also joined the party in endorsing President Jonathan for another term. So I resisted him. That was how our problem started.
“And who is begging him to come back to PDP? We don’t need him to win elections. Since he started supporting the opposition, we’ve been having it good in the South West. We’ve been doing well. PDP is not owned by anyone. I’m just a small man working for the party. How many times have I visited the National Secretariat? Nobody knows me. But I work hard in the South West here. I mobilize for the party. I resolve conflicts. It is your work in the grassroots that recognises you.
“Obasanjo believes he is God, but he is not. I’ve taken him to court. If he had the power to stop Jonathan, he would have done it. But he’s not God who created President Jonathan. He came out openly to say that President Jonathan should not do a second term. Why would he say that? Is he God? Why do you want to play God all the time? He can continue to do a lot of blackmail, but I don’t care. Anybody that does not do the bidding of Obasanjo, that person would be in his black book.
“But I will never beg Obasanjo. He’s not my father, and he will never be my father. He has disgraced Nigerians and the Yoruba race. We have many leaders in the South West, and he’s saying I have been handed the party leadership in the South West. Is that possible? I’m just an ordinary member of the party in the South West.”

Why Obasanjo is after me, by Buruji Kashamu