A man indicted in America for allegedly smuggling heroin, in a court case that was the basis for the TV hit "Orange Is The New Black," has been elected a senator in Nigeria.
Buruji Kashamu was little known before he returned home in 2003 from Britain despite a U.S. extradition order to become a major financier of President Jonathan's party.
Election results posted late Wednesday identify Kashamu as a senator-elect in southwest Ogun state. Opponents are challenging his victory in court, saying ballots were rigged.
Kashamu,
56, hung up the phone twice when the AP called for comment about the
drug case on Thursday. Kashamu has said he is "a clean businessman" and
that the 1998 indictment by a grand jury in the Northern District of
Illinois for conspiracy to import and distribute heroin in the United
States is a case of mistaken identity. He has said Chicago prosecutors
really want the dead brother he closely resembles.
A
British court refused a U.S. extradition request in 2003 over
uncertainty about Kashamu's identity. Chicago Judge Richard Posner
thought otherwise when he refused a motion to dismiss Kashamu's case
last year.
A
dozen people were long ago tried and jailed in the case, including
American Piper Kerman, whose memoir about her jail time became the
Netflix hit "Orange Is The New Black." Kerman's book never identified
Kashamu by name, but there is a West African drug kingpin whom she calls
"Alhaji," meaning one who has completed the haj or pilgrimage to Mecca.
A
Nigerian federal court last year ordered Kashamu's extradition, an
order upheld by an appeals court. But Nigeria's government has not
extradited him.
That
failure caused Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president, to warn that
"drug barons ... will buy candidates, parties and eventually buy power
or be in power themselves."
Jonathan's
perceived protection of Kashamu was a factor that led Obasanjo to
defect from the ruling party before recent elections to the opposition
that won most votes in Ogun, the home state of Kashamu and Obasanjo.
Kashamu
is suing Obasanjo for libel for stating that Kashamu is a fugitive from
U.S. justice. He had won a court order halting publication of
Obasanjo's autobiography but a judge this week rescinded it, saying
Kashamu had misled the court. Obasanjo's lawyer argued that the truth
cannot be libel.
President-elect
Muhammadu Buhari, a former military dictator who had people jailed for
littering in the 1980s, has promised to fight corruption. That has many
politicians fearful in a country where corruption is endemic.
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