by Rachel Ogbu

Two years on and the Yoruba actor, Babatunde Omidina, better known as Baba Suwe is still battling with the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency to pay the N25m compensation following his humiliating detention.

On Thursday, Omidina urged the Court of Appeal, Lagos, to affirm the judgment of a Lagos High Court, Ikeja after the NDLEA had detained him for 24 days in 2011 on the suspicion that he ingested hard drug.

According to reports, NDLEA counsel, Femi Oloruntoba, had justified the agency’s action in a five ground-appeal, asking the appellate court to forget the lower court’s judgment.

“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,” Oloruntoba said.

Omidina’s lawyer, 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.

Aturu criticised the NDLEA’s appeal, insisting that the exhibits they relied on at the lower court were “legally worthless”.

“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.

He reportedly added that the NDLEA misused 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.

“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,” Aturu said.

The Punch reports:

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.

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.