On October 13, 2011, Nigerian actor and movie producer Babatunde
Omidina better known as Baba Suwe was taken into custody and detained by
officers of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency under the assumption
that he was in possession of hard drugs believed to be cocaine.
Baba Suwe was arrested at the Muritala Mohammed International
Airport, on his way to Paris, France to attend a naming ceremony of an
Air France staff scheduled for Saturday, October 15, 2011. He was
supposed to be the master of ceremony at the event.
According to the agency’s head of public affairs, the actor had
tested positive to drug ingestion and was immediately placed under
observation. And so the days kept rolling by; attracting local and
international media to the Baba Suwe-NDLEA case as the agency and whole
world waited for the actor to excrete the alleged drugs he had ingested.
‘There is reasonable ground for suspicion and the actor is
currently under observation. He is fine and has gone for the first
excretion but no drug had been found on him. We have in the past
recovered drugs after the fourth excretion. It is just the normal
process for all passengers’, Hamza Umar, NDLEA Airport commander disclosed on day six of Baba Suwe’s dentention.
On October 21, a Federal High Court granted the NDLEA a further 15
days to detain Baba Suwe after presenting evidence that suggest the
actor had swallowed ‘large amounts of drugs’ in his body.
On November 1, the actor made his first court appearance and thus
begun the most profiled celebrity court cases of 2012. Justice Yetunde
Idowu at the Ikeja High Court granted Baba Suwe on bail in sum of
N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira). On November 4, the actor became a
free man again.
He might had regained freedom but had been stained with
embarrassment. With the help of his counsel Bamidele Aturu, the actor
dragged the NDLEA to court, suing for N100M damages for the unlawful
detention which led to public humiliation. Justice Idowu on November 24
ordered the NDLEA to pay a sum of N25M (Twenty five million Naira).
It’s one year later but Baba Suwe is yet to receive a dime from the
settlement. After a series of appeals and counter appeals, both parties
are still in court.
Meanwhile the actor has taken advantage of the scenario and is reported to be shooting a movie over the whole ordeal.
One way or the other, Baba Suwe seems to be determined to cash out from the whole brouhaha.