Babatunde Omidina, aka Baba Suwe
By Akinwale Akintunde
Justice Yetunde Idowu of an Ikeja High Court has been asked to stay Execution on her judgment delivered in favour of popular comedian cum actor, Babatunde Omidina (aka Baba Suwe) against the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on November 24, 2011 pending the determination of the Appeal filed by the agency against the judgment.
NDLEA in its application moved by its Director of Prosecution and Legal Services, Femi Oloruntoba, contested the judgment in its entirety and told the court that the agency would not be able to function effectively and as well prosecute the appeal should it pay the judgment sum of N25 million as it is half of its monthly available resources.
The agency also asked for any other order that the court deems fit to make in the circumstance.
NDLEA based its application for stay of judgment execution on the ground that there exists an appeal and substantial grounds for appeal, that the judgment of the Court of Appeal will be rendered nugatory if it succeeds, and that the court lacks jurisdiction to have adjudicated on the subject matter of proceedings or award damages or make the orders it made.
The other grounds included the fact that NDLEA has shown that impecuniosities or lack of fund would deprive her from prosecuting the appeal and carry out her statutory duties and that Baba Suwe would not be able to refund the judgment sum of N25 million if NDLEA succeeds on appeal.
According to Oloruntoba, the agency does not get N7billion monthly but N52 million monthly which is the total sum of all its activities including investigations and litigations as well as running cost, adding that out of the N7billion that they get annually, N633 million goes into workers salary.
On the issue of apology, while also asking the court to stay execution on this, NDLEA states that if it is made to publish an apology to the respondent in two national dailies as ordered by the court, the apology cannot be retracted if the appeal succeeds, adding that its right to appeal will be highly prejudiced.
Oloruntoba also stated that the application is necessary to maintain status quo pending the determination of the appeal filed against the judgment of the court, reiterating the fact that NDLEA is hamstrung in paying the awarded sum due to lack of fund.
He said the agency can only provide a bank guarantee of the judgment sum if it negotiates with the bank where its account is domiciled as it has accrued financial liabilities which it is unable to pay due to paucity of fund.
Bamidele Aturu, counsel to Baba Suwe, opposed the application for stay of judgment execution, stating that ‘it does not hold water’.
“It is our position that the submission of NDLEA’s counsel relating to stay of execution can hardly be faulted but the overriding principle is that the successful party in litigation should not be refused the fruit of litigation”, he said.
According to him, his client is not impecunious and is able to refund the judgment sum in the event that the NDLEA’s appeal succeeds, adding that the agency can conveniently pay the judgment sum from its statutory funding as an agency of the Federal Government
He submitted that the agency does not have any accrued financial liability as alleged adding that some paragraphs of the affidavit ion support of the application for stay of execution are false
While urging the court to refuse the application for stay of execution in respect of the judgment, Aturu asked the court to give an order mandating NDLEA to deposit the judgment sum with the Chief Registrar of the court who will in turn deposit it in an interest yielding account pending appeal.
“We respectfully urge this honourable court to refuse the application for Stay of Execution in respect of the monetary aspect of the judgment delivered on the 24th of November, 2011”, he stated.
Justice Idowu adjourned the matter till March 2, for ruling.