DAY 17: Baba Suwe To Appear In Court November 1

The last two and a half weeks have been quite entertaining for Nigerians who have followed the NDLEA/Baba Suwe drama. Without paying a dime to buy or rent his movies, we have enjoyed every bit of a comedy series that doesn’t look like its ending soon.

Let’s do a short recap: On Wednesday, October 12, 2011 Baba Suwe (real name Babatunde Omidina) was reported in several papers to have been arrested by the National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on suspicion of possession of hard drugs believed to be Cocaine while attempting to depart Lagos for Paris on a 10pm scheduled Air France flight AF3051. He was immediately taken into custody and placed under ‘observation’ where the NDLEA said he ‘tested positive to Drug Ingestion’.

The news of Baba Suwe’s supposed ‘arrest’ spread like wild fire and even made its way to foreign online publications like BBC.com and Yahoo News. Trust social networks like Facebook and Twitter to have already made the news a trending topic. It wasn’t the first time a Nigerian actor would be detained over the suspicion of possession of hard drugs but Baba Suwe is practically known by everybody. The search for hard substances in his excrete soon became a global concern.

The NDLEA through their rep Ofoyeju Mitchell later on disclosed to the general public that they never arrested the actor but that he was only detained by their officials. ‘There is reasonable ground for suspicion and the actor is currently under observation’, Hamza Umar, NDLEA Airport commander disclosed. As of the sixth day in NDLEA custody, the actor had excreted three times but nothing was found.

Today makes it 17 full days in detention for a now embattled Baba Suwe and tongues have started wagging. Some believe that that the actor should have been released after his third day in custody but a Federal High Court on Friday, October 21, 2011 approved the request made by the NDLEA to further keep the accused in custody for 15 more days. The request which was made through NDLEA’s lawyer, Theresa Asuquo was granted by Justice Okechukwu Okeke.

Reports also say that a 29-paragraph affidavit presented by an NDLEA intelligence officer, Femi Johnson Osifuye and a CT scan result issued by a consultant radiologist from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Dr. Subhash Vijayvargiya further suggested that Baba Suwe has ‘large amounts of drugs’ in his body.

The NDLEA also made known to the court that Baba Suwe while under observation refused to eat, claiming that he eats only once in three days. Hence they reason for keeping him longer.

This however didn’t stop a ‘Fundamental Rights Group’ to drag the NDLEA to court and even sue them for N100M (One hundred million Naira). On Tuesday, October 26, 2011, a fundamental enforcement rights suit was filed at the Lagos high Court, Ikeja presided over by Justice Yetunde Idowu. Justice Idowu ordered the NDLEA to produce Baba Suwe in court on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 in suit for the enforcement of his ‘fundamental rights’.

Baba Suwe’s son, Adesola Omidina in an affidavit before the court made it known that his father told him that he eats thrice daily and has excreted eight times so far. The affidavit further stated that his father has been a diabetic patient for over five years and is in danger of death.

However, the NDLEA say they are still observing. ‘We are still investigating, thank you’, Ofoyeju told Nigerian Entertainment last week. The 15-day custody will end on November 5, 2011.