Nabbed Tramadol Businessman, Sues NDLEA N200m For Violation Of Fundamental Rights

Ukatu is the Managing Director of Mallinson & Partners Ltd, whom the NDLEA alleged imported two containers containing 1,284 cartons of Tramadol worth N22 billion in 2019 and also claimed was behind a N3 billion shipment of Tramadol linked to the suspended police chief, Abba Kyari.

The businessman, Ukatu Afamefuna Mallinson, has filed a fundamental rights suit against the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), before a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos.

He is asking the court to order NDLEA to release him “forthwith” and “unconditionally” or upon such terms as the court may deem fit.

Apart from protesting his innocence, Ukatu also averred that the NDLEA did not only fail to arraign him in court, despite their being close to the Federal High Court within a 40km radius of where he is being held, but had also failed to grant him administrative bail since his arrest on April 13, 2022.

He urged the court to declare that his arrest by the NDLEA on April 13, at the Murtala Muhammed local Airport Terminal, Ikeja, Lagos, and continued detention in its cell at the NDLEA office at NAHCO Compound, International Airport Road, was “without reasonable cause or upon reasonable suspicion of a crime,” and violates his fundamental rights.

The applicant further prayed for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the NDLEA from “re-arresting, further re-detaining, further re-incarcerating” him contrary to his fundamental rights to liberty and freedom as enshrined in Section 35 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) among other laws.

The applicant made the prayers in his originating summons in Suit FHC/L/CS/796/2022, before Justice Nicholas Oweibo, filed by his counsel Victor Opara, SAN, of Victor Opara’s Chambers.

In the alternative, the businessman prayed for an order admitting him to bail on the most liberal terms pending the conclusion of NDLEA’s investigation and/or his arraignment.

He further sought an order directing the NDLEA to tender a public apology to him for the “unlawful arrest and unlawful detention” to be published in three national newspapers to wit: Vanguard, Punch, The Nation.

The applicant also asked for an order directing the NDLEA to pay him N200 million as damages for unlawful arrest and unlawful detention.

The date for the hearing of the lawsuit is yet to be fixed by the court.

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