By EDU ABADE, Business Editor
Managing Director of Mallinson & Partners Limited, Mallinson Afamefuna Ukatu, has sued the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Federal High Court, Lagos in an attempt to prevail on the NDLEA to release him unconditionally, or on terms the court may deem fit.
It would be recalled that NDLEA alleged that Ukatu imported two containers containing 1,284 cartons of Tramadol worth N22 billion in 2021 and also fingered him in a N3 billion shipment of Tramadol linked to the embattled senior police officer, Abba Kyari, who is being tried for sundry offences.
Besides insisting on his innocence, Ukatu also argued that the NDLEA not only failed to arraign him in court, despite the fact that there is a federal High Court within 40 Kilometers radius or where he was being held, but also failed to grant him administrative bail since his arrest on April 13, 2022.
Ukatu prayed the court to declare that his arrest by the NDLEA on April 13, 2022 at the Murtala Mohammed Airport terminal in Ikeja, Lagos, and his continued detention in the NDLEA office at NAHCO facility, was without reasonable cause or reasonable suspicion of a crime, which violates his fundamental rights.
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He further prayed for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the NDLEA from re-arresting and further detaining him, contrary to his fundamental rights to liberty and freedom, as enshrined in section 35 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, among other legal provisions in the country.
The applicant made the prayers in his originating summons in a suit marked: FHC/L/CS/696/2020 before Justice Nicholas Oweibo, filled by his counsel, Victor Opara (SAN) of Victor Opara Chambers and in the alternative, prayed for an order admitting him to bail on liberal terms pending the conclusion of NDLEA’s investigation or his arraignment.
He further sought an order directing the NDLEA to apologise to him publicly for the unlawful arrest and detention to be published in three national newspapers and an order directing the NDLEA to pay him N200 million damages for his unlawful arrest and detention.
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