BEVERLY HILLS, CA, July 01, (THEWILL) – The bid by the Federal Government to extradite a Nigerian, Kingsley Edegbe, to The Netherlands for trial over alleged human trafficking offences, has suffered a setback.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja Tuesday turned down the application by the Federal Government to extradite the suspect.
The office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) had applied to the court on behalf of the Federal Government for an order to extradite Edegbe to The Netherlands to face trial. The Federal Government said its request was based on a demand 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.
THEWILL can report that the Federal Government tendered documents, including reports of investigations into the alleged offences of Edegbe and his racket.
The documents showed that, if successfully extradited, Edegbe would face charges bordering on human trafficking, human smuggling, falsification of travel documents, forgery of travel documents, abduction of minors from the authority having legal custody over them and participating in a criminal organisation.
The alleged offences were said to be punishable by deprivation of liberty of more than one year and covered by Articles 3, 5 and 16 of the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime (TOC Convention), which Nigeria signed and ratified with its protocol on December 9 and 14 , 2004.
Edegbe was said to be particularly wanted in connection with the trafficking of about six Nigerian girls, aged 25, from Nigeria to the Netherlands between 2006 and 2007.
Some of the documents tendered in court contained information to the effect that Edegbe “is responsible for the organisation of human trafficking activities in Nigeria, which include recruiting minor girls victims, providing accommodation to the young women preparatory to their trip to Europe, providing the girls with false travel documents and forcing them to undergo a voodoo ritual, as a result of which they are compelled to do what the organization wanted them to do.”
Counsel to the Federal Government,lawyer, Mr. Muslim Hassan, had urged the court to grant the application in accordance with the provisions of the Extradition Act, Cap E25 Laws of the Federation 2004.
He argued that the Nigerian Government was obligated under the TOC Convention, to accede to the request of The Netherlands because both countries had signed and ratified the Convention, noting that there ought not to be a separate Extradition Treaty between the country and Netherlands before such extradition request could be granted.
Hassan argued that, as against the contention of Edegbe’s lawyer, Victor Ebonka, the provisions of Section 12 of the Constitution and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons(NAPTIP) Act had sufficiently domesticated the TOC Convention in the country.
He therefore urged the court to grant the request and surrender Edegbe to enable him stand trial in the Netherlands for the charges raised against him.
Ebonka, in opposing the government’s application urged the court to refuse it.
According to him, the court cannot order the extradition of his client because the country had not met the requirement. He contended that, not only was there was no valid extradition treaty between the country and Netherlands, the National Assembly had not domesticated TOC by enacting a distinct law to that effect. He argued that the nation’s Extradition Act could not take the place of Extradition Treaty between both countries. Ebonka further argued that the TOC was not yet an applicable law in the country having not been domesticated.
“Domestication of treaties is different from mere signing. In this case, it was signed, but not yet domesticated by the National Assembly by enacting an express Act as was done in the case of Nigeria and South Africa,” he said.
But the trial judge, Hon. Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed, while ruling on the application on Tuesday, held that “the application is incompetent, and therefore the court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain it.”
According to Justice Mohammed, “The court has not been shown any extradition treaty between Nigeria and The Netherlands upon which the application sought could have been granted.”
He added that “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.
He said “The African Charter was clearly domesticated. Nigeria has extradition treaty with South Africa which has also been domesticated. This court is not prepared to hold that an extradition treaty exists between The Netherlands and Nigeria when there is none. It is a dangerous precedent to abandon an existing law to enable the extradition of the suspect.”
He therefore held that there was no competent application before the court for the extradition of the suspect.
The Federal Government had asked the court for permission to extradite Edegbe to The Netherlands for prosecution for offences related to alleged masterminding a racket for trafficking girls from Nigeria to The Netherlands for prostitution.
