Interview

EXCLUSIVE Interview:

Nigeria Cannot Extradite ‘Ambazonia’ Leaders to Cameroon

- Barrister FRU John NSOH

Barrister-at-law, FRU John NSOH

Senior Barrister-at-law, FRU John NSOH, has maintained that following the present dispensation and bilateral relations between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Cameroun, the arrested interim leaders of the ‘Federal Republic of Ambazonia’, cannot be handed over to the Cameroon government. Interviewed By NFOR Hanson NCHANJI for CAN

                In an exclusive chat with CNA’s Nfor Hanson Nchanji, Barrister John Nsoh, said because there has never existed an extradition treaty signed between both countries, it will be impossible for President Buhari to hand over the 9 men and 1 woman; not even the agreement to eliminate terrorists within the two countries can solve the problem. Read on

                **Good day Barrister. What are the legal implications of the arrest or abduction of the interim leaders of Ambazonia? Do Cameroon and Nigeria have an extradition treaty?

                No, there is no extradition treaty between Cameroon and Nigeria. I have done the research; I have looked for it all over and found out there is no treaty.

                **Now within this context where leaders of Ambazonia have been arrested in Nigeria and in the absence of an extradition treaty, do the two countries still have some legal status to do so?

                Never! First there is no extradition treaty; second those people are out of Nigeria on refugee status either on UN or with Nigeria. There is one there who is an American citizen, Professor AWASUM. The rest are either living and working in Nigeria and even if all of them didn’t have any status, international law prohibits the delivering of refugees who have ran away from their countries, for them to be sentenced. There is no law that will oblige Nigeria to extradite those leaders. Nigeria has no law on terrorism like Cameroon and so cannot allow them to enter Cameroon because they will be tried by the military court which is against international law.

                **Can the two countries not use their status as members of Commonwealth and conduct the extradition?

                That is even difficult, even the international law that I just quoted to you will be reinforced by the Commonwealth, you cannot go from one Commonwealth country to another to extradite somebody who is running away from persecution from your country, it cannot work!  And secondly, extradition treaties have limitations. Extradition treaties involve only common law crimes; it does not involve political crimes, which can lead to death penalty. Let me tell you, there is no such thing in law as International warrant of arrest. There can only be a warrant of arrest which can be executed by any country and you can only ask the country to do so and it cannot be in a common law crime not in political crime where someone is escaping from persecution. So La Republic du Cameroun is wasting its time, they cannot under the present situation extradite them, they would have succeeded to highjack them if their plan worked, but legally they cannot.

                **When you say, if their plan worked, what do you mean by that?

                Well from the rumors , I don’t have the facts but from the rumors we have is that they had gone there with a Plane, they had gotten the secret service of Nigeria to abduct the leaders, because what happened was not an arrest, it was an abduction.

                **Don’t you think Nigeria can still release the leaders to Cameroon like she did in the case of Charles Taylor?

                Never! Not the Nigeria that I know. No! No! No! Charles Taylor was wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and Nigeria is a signatory to that court, so she had the obligation to deliver him to the court. This is completely different. These people have not committed any crime against humanity. Let’s suppose Cameroon government says they have committed a crime, it must be a Common Law crime to ignite the provisions of the extradition treaty if it does exist, unfortunately for the government there is no such treaty between Cameroon and Nigeria, unless it was signed overnight; and if signed overnight it cannot even work, it must go to Parliament for scrutiny.

                **So what can be done legally to release them, I hear there have been a Law Suit against the State at the Abuja high court, is that the right procedure?

                It is now in the hands of Nigeria. Nigeria must tell the world why they are detaining them. You know the legal system in Nigeria is totally different from what we have here where there is no law. The government is obligated to follow the law. And let me tell you that in 2002 the same High Court in Abuja, issued a judgment against Nigerian government asking her to go to court on the non respect of the 1961 plebiscite which violated the UN charter on the reunification of the two Cameroons, Nigeria lost that. Nigeria has not executed that judgment in bad faith and in complicity with La Republic du Cameroun.

                **The Cameroon Communication Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said this week that he cannot react on rumors and emotions; can you deduce anything from this government silence?

                I’m deducing the fact that they are so ashamed to even accept the fact that they are involved in a very big ugly international scandal .No government will accept that. They have refused to comment either way since this thing happened but they don’t want to know. What they don’t know is that the international community is aware that their Ministers are in Abuja. You want to tell me that Cameroonians did not know that Rene SADI went to Nigeria to negotiate for their arrest?TCHIROMA will not comment because their hands are dirty. Nigeria cannot give them to Cameroon and I don’t think Nigeria wants to be involved in such public trial and the people of Nigeria are not happy at all. I have not seen a single newspaper which has written something good on this arrest; they are all angry. It is going to be hot on the Nigerian government because you know I cannot understand how people are abducted and kept incommunicado, in this 21st century.

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Barrister FRU John NSOH