Extension of detention: Baba Suwe challenges court order

Posted by admin Headlines, Judiciary, NDLEA (Anti-Drug Agency) Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Baba Suwe
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Detained Lagos-based comedian, Babatunde Omidina, a.k.a Baba Suwe, yesterday filed a fresh motion praying a Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos to vacate its earlier order made on October 21, empowering the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to detain him for additional 15 days.
The motion was filed pursuant to Order 26 Rule 11 of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2009b.
He stated in the motion dated October 24, 2011 that the order obtained by the NDLEA was grossly irregular and constituted an incurable abuse of the processes of the court.

Baba Suwe in the application filed by his counsel, Bamidele Aturu also argued that the application for the order obtained by the respondent was contrary to public policy and constitutes wanton violation of his fundamental rights.
Justice Okechukwu Okeke of the Federal High Court Ikoyi had granted the request of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to further keep Omidina in custody for 15 more days.

He made the order after listening to the arguments canvassed by NDLEA.
The application was supported by a 29-paragraph affidavit deposed to by an NDLEA Intelligence Officer, Femi Johnson Osifuye and a CT scan result issued by a consultant radiologist with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Dr. Subhash Vijayvargiya.

The result, according to the affidavit, confirmed that Baba Suwe had large amount of narcotic drugs in his body.
The NDLEA, it would be recalled, had arrested the comedian on October 12 while trying to board an Airfrance to Paris on suspicion that the scanning machine at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport indicated that he had ingested substances suspected to be hard drugs.

According to the affidavit, Osifuye averred that following Baba Suwe’s arrest, the man was placed on observation pending when he would defecate the ingested substances, but that while on observation, Baba Suwe refused to eat, claiming that he eats only once in three days.

He added that as a result of Baba Suwe’s refusal to eat, he had not excreted the ingested substances.
According to Osifuye, after the comedian made the second excretion and no substance was found, the NDLEA had to take him to LASUTH for another CT scan for a second opinion on whether he indeed ingested the narcotic drugs, and the test confirmed large amount of drugs in his body.

-Sunwp_posts