The Court of Appeal, Lagos has again
fixed April 18 for hearing of an appeal by the National Drug Law
Enforcement Agency against a judgment ordering it to pay N25m as
compensation to Yoruba actor, Babatunde Omidina, popularly called Baba
Suwe, for wrongful detention in 2011.
The Justice Chima Nweze-led appeal panel
re-scheduled the hearing which was earlier slated for Friday on the
grounds that it was wrongly listed.
The court, in view of the error, therefore adjourned for definite hearing.
NDLEA, through its counsel, Mr. Femi
Oloruntoba, had in a five-ground notice of appeal, urged the appellate
court to set aside the judgment.
Among its grounds of appeal are that the
award of N25m in favour of Omidina was arbitrary and that the trial
court wrongly assumed jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
The trial judge, Justice Yetunde Idowu,
had in a judgment delivered on November 24, 2011, 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 had also ordered the agency to apologise to the actor publicly in conspicuous pages of two national dailies.
Omidina was arrested by operatives of the
NDLEA at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport on October 12, 2011
on allegations of ingestion of narcotics.
He was said to be detained without any
evidence that he ingested any narcotic, as he did not excrete any of
such substance throughout the period of his incarceration.
Idowu, in her judgment, held that the
detention of the actor and the ill-treatment meted to him while in
custody violated his constitutionally-guaranteed rights.
Oloruntoba had insisted in the appeal
that keeping the respondent in custody between October 12 and 21, 2011,
on the suspicion of drug ingestion, did not violate his rights.
The agency further stated that there was
an order of the Federal High Court on October 21, 2011 for a further
detention of the applicant for 15 days.
He said that the detention of the applicant for nine days was legitimised by the court order.
NDLEA is, therefore, contesting Justice
Idowu’s decision that the detention of the applicant for nine days,
between October 12 and 21, 2011, was ‘a flagrant abuse and infringement
on his fundamental human rights.
The NDLEA also stated in its notice of
appeal that drugs and poisons were items under the Exclusive Legislative
List in the 1999 Constitution and also subject to exclusive
jurisdiction of the Federal High Court by virtue of Section 251 of the
constitution.
He contended that the judicial powers of the high court of a state were not extended to the subject matter of litigation.
Idowu had granted a partial stay of
execution of the judgment in March 2, 2012, and had ordered the NDLEA to
pay the money to the Chief Registrar of the court, who would in turn
pay it into an interest-yielding account.
It is time we start accepting the Bi-Camera governing system... The govt cannot fight against innocent citizens, let the rule of law prevail. If Baba Suwe was unlawfully detained beyond the normal period of time, then the compensation is not even enough for his wasted productive time and the reduction of his good reputation as an actor that many young futuristic actors sees as role model. The court order should be enforce.
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