Ayodele Fayose, former governor of Ekiti state, has condemned ex-President’s Olusegun Obasanjo’s reaction to the death of Buruji Kashamu, saying Nigerians will also be on the lookout for the manner in which he will die.
Kashamu, a former senator from Ogun state, died from COVID-19 complications at a Lagos hospital on Saturday, according to Ben Murray Bruce, also a former senator.
In a sarcastic condolence letter, Obasanjo said Kashamu’s life was a lesson for all as in his lifetime as he used “the maneuver of law and politics to escape from facing justice on alleged criminal offence in Nigeria and outside Nigeria”.
“But no legal, political, cultural, social or even medical maneuver could stop the cold hand of death when the Creator of all of us decides that the time is up,” Obasanjo had said, referring to Kashamu as “Esho Jinadu”, believed to be his real name before he became a fugitive from the US.
But Fayose said it was regrettable that Obasanjo could say that about the deceased “when he can no longer question him”.
He wondered why the former president did not utter such statements when Kashamu was alive.
He asked Obasanjo to stop acting like “a saint”, asking if the ex-president did not at some point collaborate with the deceased to do most of the things he did politically while he was alive.
“I commiserate with the family of Senator Buruji Kashamu for this irreparable loss and pray for the repose of his soul. The Almighty God will console those he left behind,” Fayose said.
“I also condemn the statement made by former President Obasanjo on his (Kashamu) death.
“It is regrettable that Obasanjo could say what he said about Buruji Kashamu after his death and when he can no longer question him. Why didn’t he say that when Kashamu was alive?
“Can Obasanjo say in good conscience that he did not at some point collaborated with Kashamu and most of the things he (Kashamu) did politically were not with his collaboration?
“Nigerians will watch out for Obasanjo’s own end. He should stop forming saint because he is not. He should also remember that his own end will come too and nobody knows how the end will be.”
Kashamu had a brush with the law over allegations of drug dealing while he was in the US.
In 2015, there was a stand-off at his residence after operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) attempted to arrest him for extradition to the US.
He challenged the attempt to have him extradited in court until his death at the age of 62.
Obasanjo and Kashamu had a long-running battle till the death of the former senator.
While responding to one of the attacks the ex-president launched against him, Kashamu had said Obasanjo hated him because he rendered the former president irrelevant.
He later filed a N20 billion suit against the elder statesman who referred to him as a drug baron.
