Baba Suwe urges Appeal Court to affirm N25m judgment

Yoruba actor, Babatunde Omidina, popularly called Baba Suwe, has urged the Court of Appeal, Lagos to affirm the judgment of a Lagos High Court, Ikeja awarding him N25m compensation for his wrongful detention by the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency in 2011.

The Justice Chima Nweze-led appeal reserved the case for judgment after parties adopted their briefs of argument on Thursday.

Nweze said the date for delivering judgment would be communicated to the lawyers representing the two parties.

Omidina’s counsel, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, at the hearing of the case, said the entire appeal by NDLEA was “unmeritorious” and urged the appellate court to uphold the judgment of the lower court.

But counsel for the NDLEA, Mr. Femi Oloruntoba, further justified the action of the agency detaining Omidina upon suspicion of drug ingestion for a total of 24 days from October 13 to November 4, 2011.

In adopting the agency’s five ground-appeal, Oloruntoba asked the Justice Chima Nweze-led appeal panel, to set aside the lower court’s judgment, saying the verdict was not in agreement with the evidence the parties put before the trial judge.