The Supreme Court of Nigeria has affirmed the extradition of former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC), Emmanuel Okoyomon, to the United Kingdom to face bribery-related charges.
In a unanimous judgment delivered by a five-member panel, the apex court dismissed Okoyomon’s appeal challenging earlier decisions that approved his extradition.
The court held that the appeal lacked merit and found no basis to interfere with the concurrent judgments of the lower courts.
The appeal sought to overturn the June 6, 2016 judgment of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, which upheld an earlier ruling of the Federal High Court granting the Federal Government’s request for Okoyomon’s extradition.
The application for extradition was initiated by the Attorney General of the Federation following allegations that Okoyomon was involved in a bribery scheme linked to officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the NSPMC and Securency International Pty Ltd.
The lead judgment, prepared by Justice Emmanuel Agim and read by Justice Mohammed Idris, held that the appellant failed to establish any legal grounds warranting the reversal of the decisions of the lower courts.
The panel, led by Justice Mohammed Garba, consequently dismissed the appeal but declined to award costs against the appellant.
In the earlier Court of Appeal judgment delivered by Justice Moore Adumein, the appellate court ruled that Nigeria had an obligation under the Commonwealth’s London Scheme for Extradition to surrender persons sought for extraditable offences by other member states.
The court noted that the provisions of the scheme had been substantially incorporated into Nigerian law through the Extradition Act.
Justice Adumein held that the Federal Government had established sufficient grounds for the extradition request, while the appellant failed to provide convincing reasons why the application should be refused.
The appellate court also dismissed Okoyomon’s argument that his right to fair hearing was breached, holding that the issue raised did not occasion any miscarriage of justice or affect the merits of the extradition proceedings.
According to the court, the question of whether the appellant was a British citizen was not material to the determination of the extradition application.
Following the dismissal of his appeal by the Court of Appeal, Okoyomon approached the Supreme Court, which has now affirmed the earlier rulings and cleared the way for his extradition to the United Kingdom for trial.
