Appeal court reverses Baba Suwe’s N25m judgment

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The Court of Appeal in Lagos has set aside the judgment awarding N25m compensation to Yoruba actor, Babatunde Omidina (aka Baba Suwe) for alleged wrongful detention by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in October 2011.

Justice Yetunde Idowu of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja, had on November 24, 2011 ordered the NDLEA to pay N25m to Omidina and publicly apologise to him in conspicuous pages of two national dailies for violating his rights to personal liberty.

However, in a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Rita Pemu on Friday, the appellate court upheld NDLEA’s appeal against the judgment.  The three-man appeal panel held that the Lagos High Court, Ikeja lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter in the first place. The panel added that even if its decision on the jurisdictional issue was wrong, the arrest and detention, which the respondent (Omidina) had complained of was “not unreasonable.”

Baba Suwe drug saga: NDLEA appeals N25 million court judgment

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The Court of Appeal in Lagos is to hear arguments today on the appeal by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency against the judgment ordering it to pay N25m as damages to Yoruba actor, Babatunde Omidina, aka Baba Suwe in 2011 for keeping him in custody beyond the legal time limit on the suspicion of drug ingestion.

The agency was also ordered to apologise to Baba Suwe publicly on “conspicuous pages of two national daily newspapers” but the NDLEA insisted in its appeal that keeping the actor in custody between October 12 and 21, 2011 on the suspicion that the drug was ingested did not violate his rights.

According to reports, the hearing has come more than one year after the NDLEA filed its notice of appeal against the judgment delivered by a Lagos High Court, Ikeja on November 24, 2011.