Apex Court Dismisses Okoyomon’s Appeal, Upholds Extradition to United Kingdom

The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the extradition of former Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPM) chief Emmanuel Okoyomon to the United Kingdom, where he is wanted over alleged bribery offences.

A five-member panel of the apex court unanimously dismissed Okoyomon’s appeal against the June 2016 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which upheld a Federal High Court order permitting his extradition.

The appeal, identified as SC/456/2016, was found to be without merit by the panel led by Justice Mohammed Garba.

Reading the lead judgment prepared by Justice Emmanuel Agim, Justice Mohammed Idris stated that the appellant had failed to establish any basis for the Supreme Court to overturn the findings of the lower courts.

As a result, the court dismissed the appeal, although it declined to impose costs on the former NSPM boss.

The extradition request was initiated by the Attorney General of the Federation, who sought Okoyomon’s transfer to the UK to stand trial over allegations of complicity in a bribery scandal involving officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the NSPM, and Australian company Securency International Pty.

Okoyomon had previously challenged the extradition order, arguing before the Court of Appeal that his constitutional right to a fair hearing had been breached.

But the appellate court rejected his position, with Justice Moore Adumein holding that Nigeria has a legal obligation under the London Scheme for Extradition within the Commonwealth to surrender individuals wanted for extradition offences by other Commonwealth nations.

“This provision is substantially supported by the provisions of sections 1 and 2 of the Extradition Act 2004. The lower court was right to have acted the way it did, so as to avoid a situation whereby Nigeria could breach its obligations to a fellow Commonwealth country, the UK,” the court held.

Justice Adumein also ruled that whether or not Okoyomon was a British citizen had no bearing on the merit of the extradition request and did not result in any miscarriage of justice.

“The learned trial judge, in my humble view, rightly held that the respondent (AGF) made out a case to justify why the extradition application should be granted, while the appellant failed, by his defence, to convince the court why the application should be refused,” he stated.

With Friday’s ruling, the Supreme Court has effectively exhausted Okoyomon’s legal efforts to block his extradition and cleared the way for him to face trial in the United Kingdom.

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