The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Governor Dapo Abiodun may engage in a ploy to stop the extradition of Bidemi Rufai if he is granted bail and allowed to slip away from the United States, American prosecutors said. 

Messrs Rufai and Abiodun have been long-time associates and business partners prior to the arrest.

Mr Rufai was arrested on May 14 by the FBI for his alleged role in a $650 million (N312 billion) employment fraud.

He had appeared before a federal court last Saturday and charged with five counts of wire fraud for his participation in the massive COVID-19-related fraud on the Washington Employment Security Department (ESD).

Although Mr Abiodun ordered an immediate suspension of Mr Rufai as a special duties aide on Tuesday and demanded that law take its course, the Acting U.S. Attorney, Tessa Gorma, in a letter to Ramon Reyes, the Magistrate Judge in Eastern District of New York, expressed fears that the APC may frustrate his extradition process if he is granted bail.

Gorma also said Mr Rufai “presents an extreme risk of flight,” and may use his economic and political influence to facilitate his flight from prosecution.

“He has strong ties to Nigeria, and no ties at all (apart from this fraud) to the Western District of Washington. He possesses economic resources and technical abilities that could facilitate his flight from prosecution,” the letter read in part, while noting that there would be difficulty in extraditing Mr Rufai to U.S.

“If he does escape to Nigeria, extradition will be extraordinarily difficult or impossible because of his ties to the Nigerian government,” it said. 

“The Court should order Rufai detained because no conditions or combination of conditions will reasonably assure his appearance as required”.

A former senator who represented Ogun East at the 8th National Assembly, Buruji Kashamu, frustrated efforts to extradite him to the U.S. after he was indicted by a grand jury for conspiracy to import heroin into the U.S.

Late Mr Kashamu had secured two orders from a Federal High Court between 2014 and 2017 restraining the Federal Government from carrying out his extradition to the U.S.