FG should reconsider extradition treaties

Such Nigerians suffer torture and risk. They even face the death penalty in some cases. It is for this reason that some countries often refuse to enter into extradition treaties with other nations.The case of Kingsley Edegbe is an example of such illegal extradition. The Federal Government had, through the Office of the Attorney-General of […]

Such Nigerians suffer torture and risk. They even face the death penalty in some cases. It is for this reason that some countries often refuse to enter into extradition treaties with other nations.
The case of Kingsley Edegbe is an example of such illegal extradition. The Federal Government had, through the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), gone to the Federal High Court, asking that Edegbe be extradited to the Netherlands to face trial.
Government had asked the court for permission to extradite Edegbe to the Netherlands for prosecution over offences connected with running a ring of trafficking girls to the country for prostitution.
Edegbe was alleged to have belonged to an international syndicate involved in the trafficking of Nigerian girls to the country for prostitution and other related acts.
Government, in an extradition application filed before the Federal High Court, Abuja, said its request was informed by a demand made by the Diplomatic Representative of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in the country. It said a six-count charge had been filed against Edegbe at the Netherlands’ District Court of Zwolle by the country’s National Crime Squad Team, North and East Netherlands Unit. It tendered documents, including reports of investigations into the alleged activities of Edegbe and his group.
The documents, filed along with the extradition application, showed that, if successfully extradited, Edegbe would face charges bordering on human trafficking, falsification of travel documents, abduction of minors and participating in a criminal organisation.
Edegbe was said to be particularly wanted in connection with the trafficking of about six Nigerian girls, aged 25, between 2006 and 2007.
Ordinarily, almost all the offences can be tried in Nigeria, so why should government find it convenient to send Edegbe to the Netherlands?
But in refusing the application, the trial judge, Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed held that, “The application is incompetent, and therefore the court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain it. The court has not been shown any extradition treaty between Nigeria and the Netherlands, upon which the application sought could have been granted.
“The reliance on the United Nation’s Convention against Transnational Organised Crime fails because it is not an extradition treaty Act as envisaged by Section 1 of the Extradition Act of Nigeria. This court is not prepared to hold that an extradition treaty exits between the Netherlands and Nigeria when there is none. It is a dangerous precedence to abandon an existing law to enable the extradition of the suspect.”
He held that there was no competent application before the court for the extradition of the suspect.
Apart from the fact that the offences for which extradition was sought are such that could be handled by Nigerian courts, how many of these countries in the West are willing to surrender their citizens to Nigeria for trial? The answer is none.
Not long ago, many foreign citizens were involved in the bribery of Nigerian officials in the Siemens and Halliburton scandal. They were charged in Nigerian courts but were never tried. They were left off the hooks after their companies paid some money to the Nigerian government. After the payment of fines and offering of an apology, Nigeria let Siemens and its officials off the hook. But in Germany, a Munich court found two former Siemens managers guilty of breach of trust and abetting bribery in Nigeria.
Also, Nigeria, in a rare but brave moment, charged former United States of America’s Vice President Dick Cheney with corruption. He was charged as the head of Halliburton when the company’s engineering subsidiary, KBR allegedly paid bribes to secure contract in Nigeria. A British solicitor, Mr. Jeffrey Tesler was also charged.
A government that is willing to send its citizens abroad to face trial should have done so in the Halliburton case.
Recently, another application to send a former managing director of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc, Mr. Emmanuel Okoyomon, to the United Kingdom for trial was made to the Federal High Court.  The matter has been fixed for judgement by Justice Evoh Chukwu of the Abuja division of the Federal High Court.
Okoyomon’s counsel, Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), had argued that, “In the absence of any Act of the National Assembly domesticating or making the said treaty applicable to Nigeria, no Nigerian should be extradited to the UK.”
Rather than send Nigerian citizens abroad for trial, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should be well funded to bring its expertise to bear in the handling of such cases, especially the ones involving financial crimes.
The commission has experienced investigators and prosecutors that can handle complex cases. Pandering to foreign authorities by sending our citizens abroad for trial makes us look cheap among the comity of nations.
Olusegun wrote from Abuja