Fans and media follow three weeks of bowel movements, which produce no
evidence that comedian smuggled cocaine in stomach
Monica Mark in Abuja
Saturday November 5 2011
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/04/nigeria-baba-suwe-freed-drug
The scene could have been taken from one of the larger-than-life
Nollywood films comedies that made Baba Suwe one of Nigeria's most
popular actors. But a judge was deadly serious when she asked the
comedian, who had spent three weeks in jail on suspicion of smuggling
drugs in his stomach: "So you've been to the toilet how many times?"
Tens of thousands of fans, the national drug enforcement agency and
two legal teams have been in thrall to the actor's next release, so to
speak. But Suwe's failure produce a single bag of cocaine in any of
the 18 or so bowel movements detectives have been closely monitoring
has turned into an embarrassment for the agency ? and a running joke
in the local media.
Suwe, 58, real name Babatunde Omidina, is often cast as a goofy
security guard in the wildly popular Nigerian film industry, known as
Nollywood. But the roles appeared to have been reversed when,
apparently acting on a tip-off, anti-narcotics agents arrested the
comedian at Lagos airport on 12 October. They said scans revealed
"multiple hyper-dense nodular particles in the upper gastro-intestinal
tract, consistent with large amount of drug ingestion".
Alternatively, according to other officers interviewed by a newspaper,
Suwe's bowel movements were consistent with overeating a local grain
porridge known as garri.
Either way, prosecutors didn't get the discharge they were expecting.
After three weeks of drug-free stools, an unimpressed judge, Yetunde
Idowu, at Lagos high court said on Friday the actor was free to go
with 500,000 naira (?2,000) bail.
Nigerians following the saga have been full of helpful advice on TV
shows and internet chatrooms, much of it revolving around preferred
laxatives.
Others claim Suwe invoked the same powerful juju [http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juju" title="] as the nation's most famous
musician. In 1974, afrobeat musician Fela Kuti immortalised his own
experience at the hands of the drug enforcement agency with a now-
legendary album. Kuti was hauled into custody as police waited for
evidence of a planted joint he'd swallowed to avoid detection.
Instead, with the help of his juju abilities ? and fellow inmates ?
Fela went on to produce a clean sample ? and the LP Expensive Shit.
Medical experts suggested Suwe's case was clear-cut. "Assuming they
monitored the samples properly, it's medically impossible for him to
have gone to the toilet that many times and somehow kept the drugs in
him," Lagos-based gastroenterologist Shola Molemodile said. "Or if the
bags broke and his behaviour somehow wasn't enough evidence, a blood
or urine sample would have been enough."
The case has cast an unflattering spotlight on the agency tackling
drug-smuggling in a nation known as a transit hub for heroin and
cocaine to Europe. "This raises the question of how many people, who
are less famous, are wrongly imprisoned as I speak," said Suwe's
defence counsel, Bamidele Aturu.
Traffickers are increasingly using the poorly policed shorelines of
west Africa as a transit point to Europe as law agencies crack down
hard on drugs rings in Latin America and Asia. In 2008, 3,655kg of
cocaine and about 11,000kg of heroin were seized by authorities in
Nigeria. Drug gangs also target old or disabled people as recruits
less likely to fit traditional profiles of drugs mules, security
officers say. In a shocking case in 2002, police in New York
apprehended a 12-year-old boy who had swallowed 87 condoms of cocaine
before boarding a flight in Lagos.
The agency has said it will offer an apology to Suwe; Aturu says his
client may sue for defamation. "You don't keep a man locked up for
three weeks and then pretend an apology is enough. Their officials had
better start looking for new jobs," he added.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2011
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