General News of Tuesday, 28 January 2003

Source: Crusading Guide

Rawlings' "Guest" Extradited

Mr Albert Odinga, aka Odinga Lumumba, the Belize national who had been in prison custody over a period of time has been sent back home. Odinga, a friend of ex-President Jerry John Rawlings was last week escorted out of the country by air in the company of three functionaries of the immigration and security agencies.

A source hinted that the delay in sending him back home was due to difficulty in deciding where to send him. After some intensive but quiet consultations with some foreign governments and immigration agencies, it was decided that the man who was deported from Ghana in 1980 for alleged treason be sent to Belize, formerly British Honduras.

After his first deportation, from the country in 1980, Hamid Odinga sneaked into the country in 1992 under Jerry John Rawlings administration. The security agencies got wind of his presence and activities and he was nabbed in the year 2001. A court of law ordered that he should be extradited after he had been put on trial.

Odinga, was arrested in a house near former President Rawlings? Ridge residence. At the time of his arrest, he said that the ex-President was his host.