Nigeria, May 6 -- A U.S. court has affirmed the "fugitive status" of a controversial Venezuelan diplomat, Alex Saab, who is currently on house arrest in Cape Verde, preparatory to his planned extradition to face money laundering charges in America.

Weeks ago, the details of Mr Saab's criminal case, which has been pending in the U.S. since July 2019, emerged from relative obscurity and took the centre stage of an international media sensation that was triggered by a BuzzFeed report.

The foreign media's report exposed how some Nigerian social media influencers were paid to campaign for Mr Saab's freedom through the promotion of hashtag 'FreeAlexSaab' which was often built around his then ongoing case at the ECOWAS Court in Abuja.

In reac...