Baba Suwe battles NDLEA over N25m

Yoruba actor, Babatunde Omidina, popularly called Baba Suwe, has urged the Court of Appeal, Lagos, to affirm the judgment of a Lagos High Court, Ikeja awarding him N25m compensation following his detention by the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency.

The anti-drug agency detained Omidina for 24 days in 2011 on the suspicion that he ingested hard drug.

Justice Chima Nweze-led appellate court reserved the case for judgment after parties adopted their brief of arguments on Thursday.

Nweze said the date for judgment would be communicated to the lawyers representing the two parties.

Omidina’s counsel, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, at the hearing of the case, said the appeal by NDLEA was “unmeritorious” and urged the appellate court to uphold the judgment of the lower court.

But the NDLEA counsel, Mr. Femi Oloruntoba, who justified the action of the agency in a five ground-appeal, asked the appellate court to set aside the lower court’s judgment.

Oloruntoba said, “The judgment of the lower court was not a product of the evidence both parties filed before the court. The award of N25m against the appellant did not follow the proper principle of award of damages. The law does not support the judgment. We urge your Lordships to set aside the whole judgment.”

However, counsel for Omidina, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, faulted the anti-narcotic agency’s appeal, insisting that the exhibits they relied on at the lower court were “legally worthless”.

He added, “We canvassed at the lower court that the documents were not certified. The arguments of the appellant’s counsel that the public documents do not require certification are not the position of the law. We refer your Lordships to Section 102(a) of the Evidence Act 2011.”

He said the NDLEA misapplied Section 35(1) (c) of the constitution, saying the law did not empower the agency to keep Omidina or any other Nigerian citizen in custody indefinitely based on a “mere reasonable suspicion” of having committed a crime.

Aturu said, “The appellant seems to be confused over section 35(1) (c) of the Constitution. They relied on mere reasonable suspicion. You cannot hold somebody indefinitely without charging the person to court.”

The trial judge, Justice Yetunde Idowu, in a judgment delivered on November 24, 2011, had ordered the agency to pay N25m to the respondent, for keeping him in custody beyond the legal time limit on a suspicion of drug ingestion.

The court also ordered the agency to apologise to the actor publicly in conspicuous pages of two national dailies.

Culled from The Punch