The appellate court presided over by Justice C C Nweze reserved the judgement after counsel to the appellant, Mr. Femi Oloruntoba, and that of the respondent adopted their briefs of argument.
Adopting NDLEA’s brief of argument dated February 3, 2012, Oloruntoba urged the court to allow the appeal and set aside the judgement of the lower court.
He said that the lower court judge erred in law as her judgement was not a product of evidence presented before the court.
Oloruntoba said the award of N25 million damages against the appellant was outrageous and failed to follow laid down principles of law.
He added that the lower court erred as the entire judgement was faulty and that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the fundamental human rights suit filed by the respondent.
While Oloruntoba admitted that exhibits 1 and 2 (results of various scan conducted on Baba Suwe) were public documents, he contended that exhibit 3 (photograph of drug defecated by a drug trafficker) was not a public document.
But the respondent’s lawyer, Bamidele Aturu urged the court to dismiss the appeal and affirm the judgement of the lower court.
Describing the appeal as unmeritorious, Aturu argued that all the exhibits tendered by NDLEA before the lower court ought to have been certified true copies.
Describing the exhibits presented by NDLEA as worthless, Aturu added that up till yesterday, the agency had not filed any charge against Baba Suwe.
NDLEA had, in its eightpage notice of appeal, stated that the trial judge erred in law when she held that NDLEA was not justified in detaining Baba Suwe from the day of his arrest (October 12, 2011) till October 21, 2011 when the Federal High Court order to detain him was obtained.
The appellant further said the trial judge erred in law and misdirected herself on facts when she held that the act of the NDLEA in detaining Baba Suwe for nine days were a flagrant abuse and infringement of his fundamental human rights.
Besides, the appellant argued that the lower court erred in law when it ordered it (NDLEA) to pay the applicant N25 million as compensation and that the appellant should publish a public apology in two widely read national newspapers.
Justice Idowu had ordered the agency to pay Babatunde Omidina the sum of 25 million naira as compensation for detaining him for several days over allegation of drug trafficking.
Dissatisfied, the agency in December 2011filed a motion for stay of execution of the verdict which was refused by the court.
In a ruling on March 2, the lower court refused the application on the ground that the applicant was granted a conditional stay of execution pending the determination of the appeal.
It added that the judgement sum of N25 million should be paid to the Chief Registrar of the Lagos State High Court who will in turn pay it into an account with any reputable bank agreed by both parties.
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