I’ll narrate my NDLEA experience in new movie – Baba Suwe

Veteran actor, Babatunde Omidina, aka Baba Suwe, has said he will release a movie detailing his 2011 encounter with National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.

The comic actor disclosed this in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES in Lagos on Tuesday.

“I’ll release the movie titled ‘Oya’ gbe ti, so people can get to see things and learn from my own experience,” the 60-year-old actor revealed.

Baba Suwe was arrested at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in 2011 on the suspicion that he ingested cocaine wraps.

During the encounter, the popular comedian was detained for three weeks by the agency, but no drugs were found.

A Lagos High Court subsequently ordered NDLEA to pay the veteran actor N25 million for unlawfully detaining him and to also tender a public apology to him; a ruling the drugs agency appealed.

According to Baba Suwe, these conditions have yet to be met and his health has continued to suffer in the last seven years.

“I have not been compensated and the case has been somewhat stalled. You know my lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, is late and I have not been able to pursue the case ever since. The incident affected my career in many ways that you can’t imagine. In fact, I’m thankful that my career is now picking up. I am innocent of the allegations and only people close to me believe that I’m speaking the truth. It was not my first time out of the country so why will I decide to push cocaine which I have never seen in real life?” he said.

When this newspaper contacted the NDLEA spokesman, Jonah Achema he said the case is still in court.

“I can’t comment on it because the matter is still in court and a final verdict is yet to be given. You can ask Baba Suwe to give you the status of the case,” he said.

Baba Suwe is not the only Nigerian actor who has been enmeshed in a drug scandal.

On September 19, 2006, a popular Yoruba actress, Hassanat Akinwande, was arrested by NDLEA at the Mur’tala Airport, as she made to board a London-bound Virgin Atlantic flight from Lagos.

She was later made to excrete 92 wraps of cocaine (condom sized) at the NDLEA cell where she was detained. The scandal however boosted the publicity of her film, Ogun Oloro, which detailed her experience.

The following year, a Nollywood star, Uche Odoputa, was also arrested by the NDLEA for trafficking drugs and subsequently jailed for two years and three weeks.