The Coalition for Rule of Law has commended the Appeal Court sitting in Lagos for his declaration that a sitting senator can now be arrested.The groups’s national coordinator, Tade Adebiyi, in a statement in Abuja at the weekend, said the Appeal Court verdict delivered on Friday, has again affirmed its position that the senator, wanted by the United States authorities to face trial for alleged drug trafficking is “a fugitive running away from the law.”

It therefore, urged the Federal Government to, without further delay, bundle the senator to the United States.

On February 8, 2017, the Coalition for Rule of Law had written a letter addressed to the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, stating that the continued failure of the Federal Government to extradite the “wanted” senator was an embarrassment to Nigeria. A copy of the letter was also sent to the United States Ambassador to Nigeria.

The group, in the letter, recalled that the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal recently upheld the judgment of a lower court that the senator should be brought to trial in the United States.

It noted that the senator’s case remained “a big minus for the Muhammadu Buhari administration,” as Nigerians abroad were being subjected to ridicule because of it.

The group recalled that the Senator had been “patronising President Buhari through newspaper interviews and advertorials.”

“If the embattled senator is not working for the Presidency, as he has been boasting, we urge the Federal Government to extradite him without further delay, failure to do of which we shall have no other option than to approach the court to seek the order of mandamus to compel the Attorney General to perform his official obligation,” the statement added.

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