Public opinion is fast emerging against the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in Nigeria over its failure to produce specimen of excreta conclusively proving that comedy movie icon, Badatunde Omidina, a.k.a. Baba Suwe, ingested cocaine wraps.
Omidina, a well-paid comedian, has been in NDLEA custody for seven days and there is no concrete proof yet that he actually concealed in his stomach wraps of cocaine as alleged when he was arrested last Wednesday, while attempting to board an Air France flight to Paris where he was billed to perform at a private function.
NDLEA had been praised initially for flagging Omidina, whose wife allegedly died two years ago in an alleged domestic scuffle, but like the proverbial tortoise, opinions have swung such that several lawyers are now expressing the desire to stand for Baba Suwe if NDLEA turns out as a false accuser.
Said a lawyer: “Nigerians should be preparing for the mother of all libel and defamation suit, if the accusations turn out to be untrue.”
But the NDLEA said that it would recommend Omidina for CT Scan, a radiological process that is often done without precautionary care to lessen the possibility of cancer.
According to NDLEA spokesman, Mr. Mitchell Ofoyeju, the agency would recommend Omidina for CT scan if the comedian still fails to pooh the expected expensive excreta. The expensive stuff has kept about one hundred and fifty million Nigerians on vigil for about one week.
But as the Agency appears to be losing the public relations grip on the matter, Ofoyeju said on Monday that there were situations in which couriers have been known to hold on to drugs in their system until every technology at the disposal of the agency was deployed to unravel the knotty situation.
Ofoyeju explained that Mr. Omidina would be allowed to if the CT scan absolves him, adding that, the agency has not concluded that the man was guilty based on the allegations arising from the detection made by the scanning equipment at the point of departure at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. Ofoyeku also said that eight in nine suspicions made by equipment often turns true, and that “13 out of 15 such cases always turn out to be true.”
He said the agency has never claimed that the suspect is guilty.