Baba Suwe to slam N1bn suit on NDLEA *As continued detention raises concern *Media outfit offers N1m for 'shit story' *As Elesho pleads for his release .

YORUBA movie actor, Babatunde Omidina, also known as Baba Suwe, is planning to file a N1 billion suit against the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) over his arrest and detention.

Baba Suwe was arrested by the NDLEA on October 12 at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos and is still being detained.

The NDLEA had alleged that the 53-year-old actor had ingested substances suspected to be hard drugs, but there has been no evidence to substantiate the claim, even after the suspect has defecated thrice under close observation.

His lawyer, Mohammed Bashir, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in a telephone interview, on Wednesday, that a fundamental rights enforcement suit would be filed on his behalf within the next five days.

Bashir said: "We will be filing the suit before a Federal High Court in Lagos between now and Monday.

"We will be asking for N1 billion as compensation for damages suffered by him due to his illegal arrest and detention, as well as the embarrassment and defamation done to his reputation as a result of the incident."

The lawyer further told NAN that NDLEA officials had prevented him from meeting physically with Baba Suwe since his arrest a week ago.

"I have visited the place twice since he was detained but was turned back and prevented from seeing my client. This denial of access to my client is another violation of his fundamental human rights," Bashir said.

Despite the fact that the ace actor had excreted three times without any trace of drug found, the NDLEA said Baba Suwe would still continue to remain under its observation until he makes the fourth excretion.

The continued detention of the actor has sparked off controversy at the airport vicinity with divergent positions being raised by several groups.

While most workers from the various aviation agencies, who spoke on condition of anonymity, are blaming the NDLEA for refusing to release Baba Suwe after nothing was found in his excreta, they are of the opinion that he should institute a legal action against the NDLEA while others said the agency should be allowed to follow due process without any sentiment.

Those who have sympathy for the actor based their argument on the reasoning that if Baba Suwe actually ingested drug, he should have excreted same and that it would have affected his health by now.

Baba Suwe was nabbed at the Lagos airport after the Soter RS scanning machine donated to the NDLEA by the United States three years ago during the screening of outbound passengers marked him for ingesting drugs.

While the controversy rages, the NDLEA officials seem to be overwhelmed as to the next line of action to take if the comedian does not excrete drug the fourth time.

Questions are already being raised as to the efficiency of the scanning machine and abilities of the NDLEA officials.

Despite the drama, the NDLEA, through its spokesperson, Mitchel Ofoyeju, insisted that Baba Suwe would remain in its custody until every step was taken.

Ofoyeju had said: "I can confirm that Baba Suwe is still under observation. He excreted for the third time last night and no drug was found. But he remains under observation.

"It will not end at the third excretion, because it depends on body composition. For some people, it takes more time, more excretions. It really depends on the body of each individual."

The Director-General of NDLEA, Mr Femi Ajayi, had also in a television interview said that according to standard practice, a drug suspect must test negative at least three times to convince anti-narcotics agents that he is innocent.

The spokesperson for the agency told the Nigerian Tribune, on Wednesday, that the NDLEA was still observing the comic actor.

Meanwhile,After excreting threetimes in seven daysunder strict surveillance and without any trace of hard drug in the excreta of a popular Nigerian comedian, Babatunde Omidina a.k.a Baba Suwe, Image Merchant Promotion, a publishing outfit in Abuja, is offering the artiste a sum of N1 million for an exclusive right to his story that is widely referred to as "expensive shit of Baba Suwe."

The Chief Executive of the organisation, which also publishes the Economic Confidential magazine, Hajia Sikrat Yushau, in a statement issued by McDonald Koiki, Associate Editor of the magazine, said the gesture was to provide detailed information on the experience and trauma the comedian went through during the saga.

The media outfit noted that the controversy over the case of the artiste was important to the public, as his continued detention had generated a lot of debate in both the economic and entertainment sectors.

"Not minding other interests by legal practitioners to represent Baba Suwe in suing the government and the anti-narcotics agency over his ordeal, in the event that he is innocent, we strongly believe that such information from publishers of factual publication like ours could interest the members of the public," Hajia Yushau said.

She added that "the offer was not in any way to support drug trafficking, but in solidarity with the comedian for his travails and unnecessary detention for many days without taking him to court."

The comedian has been in the custody of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) since Wednesday last week, after his arrest at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on his way to Paris, France, on the suspicion of ingesting narcotics.

Meanwhile, as Baba Suwe begins his second week in the custody of the NDLEA over suspicion that he ingested hard drugs, one of his colleagues, Mr Adewale Adeoye, a.k.a Eleso, has appealed to Nigerians to plead with the NDLEA authorities to release him.

Apparently worried by the development, Eleso, who spoke with journalists on Wednesday, appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to call on relevant government structure to prevail on the NDLEA to release Omidina, since he had failed to excrete hard drug after nine days.

source Tribune Newspapers

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