Dissatisfied with
the decision of the Court of Appeal, Lagos division against his drug case with
NDLEA, popular comedian Mr. Babatunde Omidina, famously known as Baba Suwe, has
moved to lodge an appeal at the Supreme Court urging it to uphold the earlier
judgment of the Ikeja High Court.
Justice Yetunde Idowu of
the High Court, had earlier awarded N25 million compensation to the comic actor
after he was detained for several days by the National Drug Law Enforcement
Agency, (NDLEA) which wrongly accused him of drug related offences.
The notice of appeal
filed by the actor’s counsel, Bamidele Aturu, is praying the apex court to set
aside the decision of the appeal court and uphold that of the trial court,
which awarded monetary compensation to him.
The Appeal Court had on
May 31, quashed the judgment of the lower court, which ordered the NDLEA to pay
him N25 million as compensation for detaining him for several days over
allegation of drug trafficking.
Contrary to the judgment
of Justice Yetunde, the appellate Court, in its ruling delivered by Justice
Rita Pemu, considered all the three vital grounds of appeal in favour of the
appellant (NDLEA).
The NDLEA had, in its
appeal, asked the court to allow the appeal and set aside the judgment of the
lower court.
Justice Pemu of the
Appeal Court in her lead judgment, unanimously adopted by two other justices,
Chima Nweze and F. O. Akinbami, described the N25 million damages awarded to
Baba Suwe as erroneous, oppressive and superfluous.
She held that even
though the trial judge had discretion to award costs in a fundamental human
right suit, such award of damages must be based on law and not arbitrary.
“Damages must be based
on law, even though it is at the discretion of the trial judge. The award of
N25 million to the respondent was based on wrong premises and it is uncalled
for.”
She further held that no
evidence was placed before the court to warrant such outrageous award, adding
that the court ought not to have overburdened NDLEA with such award of
damages.
However, no specific
date has been fixed for hearing of the appeal in the Supreme Court.
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