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The National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has explained why it would not pay N25million to comic actor, Babatunde Omidiran a.k.a Baba Suwe, as ordered by the court.
According to the NDLEA, Baba Suwe cannot get the money because the Appeal Court had directed it not to.
In an interview with Punch, Mitchell Ofoyeju, the Head, Public Affairs of the NDLEA, explained that “if Baba Suwe had gone to the Supreme Court, perhaps his case would have been upheld. But he did not do so”.
It would be recalled that Baba Suwe was detained for weeks by the agency and interogated over claims he was in possession of cocaine, wraps of which suspicions said he ingested.
Reports said that the NDLEA did everything they could to make him defecate or vomit the drugs, including allegedly inserting a pipe into his anus.
During trial however, the court discharged the actor and ordered the NDLEA to pay him N25million as damges to take care of his health that allegedly failed as a result of the incaseration.
On Wednesday, Nollywood actor and producer, Yomi Fabiyi, said that Baba Suwe was sick and that his health was fast deteriorating due to the torture he went through in the hands of the NDLEA operatives.
Fabiyi wrote on Instagram:
He (Baba Suwe) told me that he could no longer feel comfortable since that episode. Baba Suwe can hardly walk properly as I speak, let alone go to film. How will he feed and take care of the children that Aunty Moladun left behind?
He told me when I visited him that he was innocent and a long pipe was inserted in his anus. He was detained for too long, among other things, just because he was randomly suspected like every normal person.
READ: NDLEA ordeal: Baba Suwe sick, health deteriorating
But Ofoyeju dismissed Fabiyi’s claim, saying:
The NDLEA did not torture Baba Suwe. If he was tortured, he would have said it himself. This is just an unfounded rumour on the social media and it should be disregarded.
As a matter of fact, Baba Suwe was given the best treatment. We treated him with due regard to the requirement of fundamental human rights globally. He was talking to his relatives and lawyer. He was never kept in a prison for the period that he stayed here because he was virtually under our observation.
In the meantime, Baba Suwe has debunked the claim by Fabiyi that his health was failing.
Entertainment website, TheNet.ng claims that the veteran actor said he was fine.
He was quoted as saying: “My health is perfectly fine, I don’t want anybody to worry about me, a lot of people have been calling me about the issue all day. What Yomi put out is a very old story, I don’t want to talk about the issues anymore, please ignore it.”