In Death, OBJ Chides Late Senator Kashamu; Says He Evaded Justice, But Could Not Evade Death |The Source

By Adesina Soyooye

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, like many people, do not quite subscribe to the injunction in the Holy Bible, which admonishes that we speak no ill of the dead.

In death, he reminded Senator Buruji Kashamu, who died Saturday afternoon, of COVID-19, of his( Kashamu’s) evasion from the long arm of the law, using every legal means. But added, that the Senator could not evade death.

Both men hail from Ogun State.

In a rather speedy condolence letter to the Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Kashamu, on confirming Kashamu’s death, Obasanjo said that the Senator’s  death has lessons for the living. “The life and history of the departed have lessons for those of us on this side of the veil.”, the former President wrote.

Identifying Kashamu as Senator  Esho Jinadu, he said the Senator, employed law and politics to escape facing justice on alleged criminal offences, but that he could not use those to escape death.

The former President in the letter to the Governor:

“I received the sad news of the demise of Senator Esho Jinadu  (Buruji Kashamu)  a significant citizen of Ogun State.

“Please accept my condolence and that of my family on this irreparable loss.

“The life and history of the departed have lessons for those of all us on this side of the veil.

“Senator Esho Jinadu (Buruji Kashamu) in his lifetime 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.”

The late Senator was one of the reasons Obasanjo quit the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 2015, and supported the rival APC. That move helped sack the PDP from Government, and ushered in the President Buhari-led APC Government.

Accused of alleged drug-running by the US Government, Obasanjo was shocked that the PDP did not only embrace him, but handed over the party in Ogun state to him.

The US Government wanted him extradited to the US to face allegations of drug running, for which he had been indicted. And, even though a competent court in Nigeria had, at a time, endorsed his extradition, he kept fighting it, using legal means till death.

He had vehemently denied he was involved in the crime, pushing it to his late younger brother who, he said, looked exactly like him. Not many people quite believed him.

The Senator will be buried in his Ijebu-Igbo residence Sunday afternoon according to Muslim rites, and COVID-19 protocols.