Baba Suwe’s detention illegal –Lawyers

Legal practitioners serving in Bamidele Aturu and Co have faulted the continued detention of the ace actor and comedian, Babatunde Omidina (aka Baba Suwe) by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The head of the law firm, Bamidele Aturu and the immediate past Secretary of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Malachy Ugwummadu, jointly condemned the unlawful detention of the suspect, who was arrested by the NDLEA last week on his way to France.

Addressing journalists on Monday on the state of the nation, ahead of its forthcoming fourth Annual Law and Social Development Lecture scheduled for October 24 at the Ikeja Airport Hotel, Aturu said the security agencies in the country have been incapacitated by the defective structures of governance.
The spokesman of the anti-drugs agency, Mitchel Ofoyeju, had in a statement at the weekend admitted that no drug was found in the excretion of the ace actor, even as the NDLEA airport commander, Alhaji Hamza Umar, confirmed that the actor was still being monitored in safe custody.
Reacting to the long detention, Aturu argued that detaining him for more than 24 hours without charging him to court constituted a breach of his human rights. According to him, it was unconstitutional keeping the popular actor in custody, while waiting for him to do the toilet that would generate the much awaited evidence for his prosecution.

Similarly, Ugwummadu expressed similar opinion, as he described the detention of the suspect for days as a breach of his rights.
Aturu said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), the police and Code of Conduct Bureau have failed in their statutory mandates and ordered the immediate resignation of their heads.
“The trials of former governors are just mere propaganda routines to hoodwink the unsuspecting members of the public that the phantom war aginst corruption is alive. The war never took off as a matter of fact. The people must seize the space and take on the corrupt politicians with a frenzy never before seen”, he said.

Aturu lamented the waste of public funds through security votes, describing it as a pipe for draining public resources. “In practice, governors and the presidency have access to billions if not trillions of naira every year without accounting for how they are spent. This cannot continue. We will challenge all the governors and the president very soon in the court of law and of public opinion”, he said.
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