A 75-year-old businessman, Taiwo Kayode Alli. and his son, Hamid Alli, have filed a fundamental rights suit against the Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), and four others, before a Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos, over alleged intimidation, molestation and invasion of their house by the agency.
The Applicants, represented by their lawyer Eyitayo Abiodun, seek a court order to prevent the Defendants, individually or through their agents, from arresting, intimidating, or molesting them during the application’s pending determination.
The Respondents named in the suit include the Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Head of NDLEA Lagos Zonal Command, Adetula Oluwarotimi Lawal (NDLEA Bariga Outpost), and NDLEA Personnel Adekunle Edward.
The applicants have presented their requests in a Fundamental Rights Enforcement suit identified as FHC/L/CS/2017/23 before Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa.
Specifically, they seek an Interim Order to restrain the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Respondents, either directly or through their representatives, from arresting, intimidating, or molesting them until the application is resolved.
In a sworn 16-paragraph affidavit submitted by Kayode Alli, the first applicant, it was detailed that on June 6, 2023, his son, the second applicant, drove a friend returning from the United States to the airport. Upon returning home at around 5:30 am, they discovered that the gate of his father’s residence, where he also resides, had been forcibly opened after the lock was broken.
Furthermore, they found that his brother’s car, parked within the compound, was missing. The matter was immediately reported to the Anthony Police Station. According to the affidavit, the Nigerian Police, tracing the car an hour before the incident, located it outside the NDLEA Outpost office in Gbagada, Lagos.
The second applicant, accompanied by a police officer, proceeded to the NDLEA Gbagada Outpost Office. There, they were informed that the car had been flagged down in Ikeja, and when the occupant refused to stop, they fled, abandoning the car—contrary to the fact that the car was securely parked at home.
The affidavit also mentioned that NDLEA personnel informed the police that a substance suspected to be an illicit drug was found inside the car, which served as the basis for towing the vehicle.
He mentioned that a few hours after his son departed for work that same morning, he received information that NDLEA Gbagada outpost officers had returned to pack all the belongings in the house. They also forcibly entered the upstairs apartment, which belongs to his brother residing abroad.
Additionally, he stated that NDLEA officials visited the first applicant’s workplace and residence of over 30 years. They requested the code to the safe in the office, and he contacted his son, who promptly provided them with the code.
Subsequently, upon opening the safe, all its contents, including his son’s international passport, identity card, land documents, and other documents belonging to his other children, were removed.
The deponent further added that when his lawyer visited the NDLEA office, he allegedly received information that all the documents would be returned upon payment of N5.5 million, a sum purportedly paid under duress.
Therefore, the Applicants are seeking various remedies, including a declaration that the repeated invitations, threats of arrest, interrogations, harassment, intimidation, and planned detention by the 1st to 4th Respondents to coerce the applicants into admitting that the items found in their residence, which are materials used for a butchery business and a cooling room compressor, constitute illicit substances, are not only oppressive, unlawful, but also a blatant violation of the Applicants’ constitutionally guaranteed rights.
Furthermore, the Applicants are petitioning the court for an award of N50 million in damages against the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Respondents for the purported unlawful and unnecessary infringement of their rights to private life, liberty, and dignity. Justice Allagoa has scheduled the hearing of the Application for December 4, 2023.