The Federal Excessive Courtroom in Lagos has granted an software by the Legal professional Normal of the Federation to extradite one Samuel Abiodun to america of America to face trial for alleged wire fraud and conspiracy to commit cash laundering.
Justice Akintayo Aluko gave the order on June 14, 2024, following the AGF’s software filed by Kehinde Fagbemi of the Federal Ministry of Justice.
Particularly, the Federal Authorities prayed for the give up/extradition of Abiodun to face two counts of “wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Part 1343, carrying a most time period of imprisonment of 20 years; and conspiracy to commit cash laundering, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Part 1956 (h), carrying a most time period of imprisonment of 20 years.”
Abiodun, by his counsel, Demola Adekoya, denied the allegations, and challenged, amongst others, the court docket’s energy to order his extradition.
However, evaluating the proof towards him, Justice Aluko discovered that the FG offered adequate proof to point out that Abiodun had a case to reply in America.
He maintained that the respondent misconceived the problems of the treaty between Nigeria and america authorising the court docket to grant an extradition request.
Justice Aluko held: “Leveraging on the choice of the apex court docket, the extradition treaty between america of America and Nice Britain signed in London on December 22, 1931, is recognised as binding on Nigeria and enforceable within the prompt case.
“Towards the background of the foregoing, the only real situation on this judgment is resolved in favour of the applicant towards the respondent.
“To this finish, there’s benefit and substance within the prompt software. Judgment is entered for the applicant within the following phrases:
“The appliance of the Hon. Legal professional Normal of the Federation for the give up and extradition of the respondent, Samuel Abiodun to america of America is hereby granted.
“The respondent is additional dedicated to jail custody and shall stay within the facility of the Nigerian Correctional Service to await the choice of the AGF for his give up to the US for the aim of dealing with his trial.
“The AGF shall guarantee and see to it that particular preparations are put in place for the respondent’s honest trial and defence underneath the legal guidelines of the requesting nation (USA) to the extent that the respondent just isn’t prejudiced on account of his race, faith, nationality and to make sure that his trial shall be restricted to the extradition offence provable by the info on which his give up is granted devoid of any superficial sentiments.”
In keeping with an authorized true copy of the judgment seen by our correspondent, the respondent denied the allegations of the applicant whereas claiming that he lived all his life in Nigeria and that he had by no means travelled to the US.
He claimed to neither have any enterprise or romantic relationship with anybody within the US nor did he commit any offence both in Nigeria or within the US.
He added that he didn’t co-conspire with anybody to commit cash laundering or deal in wire fraud towards a scholar at Kutztown College inside the Japanese District of Pennsylvania, recognized as J. S. (now deceased as claimed by the applicant).
The respondent mentioned he didn’t use Snapchat or have a persona of “ALICE_D013” allegedly used to demand cash from J.S. and that he had by no means been tried or convicted by any court docket in Nigeria for the offence being alleged towards him.
Moreover, he claimed that he was only a sufferer of persecution for being a buddy to somebody who was tagged as “a buddy from WhatsApp” whereas conducting a lawful enterprise operated by a registered cryptocurrency platform referred to as Binance with which he’s lawfully registered.