An Ikeja High Court, yesterday, ordered the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, to pay the N25 million awarded as damages to Nollywood actor, Babatunde Omidina (a.k.a Baba Suwe), to the Chief Registrar of the court, within 21 days.
According to the ruling delivered by Justice Yetunde Idowu, the court’s Chief Registrar is to deposit the N25 million into an interest yielding account and NDLEA’s application not to make any apology to Baba Suwe in any national newspaper pending the case before the Court of Appeal was granted.
Justice Idowu said: “The N25 million is to be deposited with the registrar in an interest-yielding account and in a bank agreed upon by the parties in the suit. This should be done pending hearing and determination of the appeal filed by the NDLEA against the court’s judgment at the Appeal Court in Lagos.”
The court held that leaving the judgment sum (N25m) to the judgment debtor will be an unfair advantage, noting that NDLEA had failed to provide sufficient proof of its actual resources and expenditure before the court.
She added: “An order for stay of execution should not be sought to serve as a substitute for the judgment the trial court denied the party.”
In a judgment on 24 November, 2011 the court ordered NDLEA to pay Omidina the N25 million as damages for his arrest and detention by the agency for nine days without a valid court order, including publishing a public apology to Omidina in two widely read national dailies.
