By Osagie Alonge and Hilda Oghuma
The battle between the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the popular Yoruba comedian Babatunde Omidina aka Baba Suwe continues as the government agency is seeking for a pleasant judgment over the amount ordered to be paid to Baba Suwe by a Lagos State High court.
Justice Idowu on Thursday, November 24, 2011 had ordered the agency to pay the comedian the sum of N25m as compensation for illegally detaining and also publish a public apology to him in two widely read newspapers.
NDLEA Director of prosecution and Legal Services, Femi Oloruntoba while moving an application before the court said ‘the agency has an appeal pending in court over the judgment of the lower Court’.
The lower court in a considered ruling on Friday, March 2, 2012 refused the application on the grounds that the applicant was granted a conditional stay off the execution pending the determination of the appeal.
Justice Idowu ordered the NDLEA to give the Chief Registrar of the court the N25M within 21 days. The registrar would then pay the money into an agreed upon bank, into an interest-yielding account.
‘The NDLEA in the motion of notice wants the appeal court to determine whether the applicant was entitled to the grant of stay of execution for the payment of N25m, pending the determination of the appeal filed by the appellant’, Ofoyeju Mitchell, Head, Public Affairs for the agency said in a statement.
