Undeterred with ruling of the Appeal Court over the quashing of his N25 million suite against the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, the ace Nigerian actor, Mr Babatunde Omidina, a.k.a. Baba Suwe has filed
an appeal at the Supreme Court against the decision of the Court of
Appeal to quash the N25 million awarded as damages to him against the
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.
Baba Suwe’s counsel, Bamidele Aturu filed the appeal at the Supreme Court on Friday.
Aturu
is seeking an order from the Supreme Court setting aside the decision
of the Court of Appeal and affirming the decision of the lower court.
The
High Court of Lagos had ordered the NDLEA to pay Baba Suwe N25 million
as damages after he was incarcerated for many days for alleged
possession of hard drugs, but the Appeal Court set aside the High
Court’s judgment in the matter.
In the appeal filed, Baba Suwe
contended that the Court of Appeal ought to have affirmed the High Court
judgement since the NDLEA has no power under the Constitution or under
any law to keep a person in detention without bringing him to court
within the period provided for in section 35 of the Constitution.
He
argued that the fact that the respondent claimed to be investigating
the allegation of commission of crime against the Appellant is not a
warrant for breaching the unambiguous provision of section 35 of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended,
saying that the evidence that another person who was arrested three days
after the arrest of the Appellant excreted on the second and third day
60 wraps of drugs.
“That the Appellant did not excrete any banned
substance ought to have led the Court of Appeal to conclude that the
detention of the Appellant for 19 days was unreasonable.
“There
was no legally admissible basis to justify the detention of the
Applicant beyond the period stipulated in section 35 of the Constitution
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended.
The
safeguard provided by law against a suspect absconding is bail and not
indefinite detention without trial as suggested by the Court of Appeal,”
he stated.
source: Naija247news
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