=>>News- Court awards N20,000 against NDLEA=<<

A Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday awarded cost in the sum of N20,000 against the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for stalling proceedings in a fresh case filed against the agency by Senator Buruji Kashamu.The sanction imposed by Justice Ibrahim Buba followed request for adjournment by the NDLEA to enable it to regularise a blunder in the defence it filed against Kashamu’s claims in the said suit.Kashamu is seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining the NDLEA and the Attorney-General of the Federation from seizing his property.He filed the suit following the failed effort by theNDLEA to extradite Kashamu to the United States of America, where he is said to be wantedfor alleged drug-trafficking offences.At the resumed proceedings on Wednesday, Kashamu’s counsel, Ifeoma Esom, said the suit was ripe for hearing and that she was ready to go on.But the NDLEA, which is challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the case and seeking the disqualification of Justice Buba fromthe suit for fear of bias, told the court that it had discovered a flaw in its defence, which needed to be amended before the case could go one.Counsel for the NDLEA said though he did not intend to delay hearing of the case but he needed ashort adjournment to enable him to regularise the processes.“The applicant has already tied our hands with theorder. We have no reason to delay this matter,” he said.But in granting the requested adjournment till October 22, 2015, the judge awarded a cost of N20,000 against the agency “to rectify the blunders in its processes.”The judge, however, said he observed that the NDLEA seemed to be seeking for two contradictory reliefs, by asking him to vacate an earlier interim injunction granted Kashamu and also asking the judge to disqualify himself.“The two cannot go together. I cannot vacate the order and at the same disqualify myself,” Justice Buba said.Kashamu had headed for court claiming to have got winds of the moves by the NDLEA and the AGF to seize or take over his properties, including a 24-flat housing estate at Egbe and several hectares of land on Lekki Peninsular, Lagos, worth over N20bn.He claimed to have acquired the properties by dint of hard work and legitimate business as opposed to the respondents’ allegation that the properties were acquired with proceeds of drug-trafficking.His lawyer, Mr. Ajibola Oluyede, claimed that allowing the respondents to seize Kashamu’s property would occasion a breach of his fundamental right to own property as provided under section 43 and 44 of the Constitution.Justice Buba had, by an interim injunction dated June 29, 2015, restrained the respondents and their privies from interfering with Kashamu’s right to own property either in Nigeria or anywhere else, pending the determination of the main suit.But the NDLEA is contending that the restraining injunction was granted against public policy, adding that it amounted to tying the hands of Federal Government agencies from discharging their legitimate mandate.The anti-narcotics agency also asked Buba to disqualify himself from the case, saying it was afraid that since Buba had adjudicated over Kashamu’s previous cases and gave judgment, it might be impossible for him to reach a different conclusion in the fresh case,  which stemmed fromthe earlier case.On his own part,  the AGF also filed a preliminary objection, challenging the court’s jurisdiction to hear Kashamu’s suit."

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