Ex-NDLEA Employee Drags Chairman, Others to Court

A former employee of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Williams Olanrewaju, has dragged the agency and four others before the Abuja Division of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, over alleged unlawful dismissal.

The plaintiff said he was dismissed following his opposition to the corrupt practices by some of his colleagues at the Special Enforcement Team/ Sensitive Investigative Unit of the NDLEA in Lagos, where he had worked between February 2016 and October 2019.

Olanrewaju, in the suit marked: NICN/ABJ/248/2022, filed by his lawyer, Sunday Adaji, and obtained by journalists on Saturday listed the Chairman of NDLEA, Brig. Gen Mohammed Marwa (retd.), Deputy Commander General of Narcotics, Zirangey Drambi, Assistant Commander of Narcotics, Samuel Abarogu, and Assistant Commander of Narcotics, Taupyen Sunday, as 1st to 5th respondents respectively.

The claimant said that he joined the agency in 2011 and rose to the rank of Chief Narcotic Agent, adding that were it not for the alleged victimisation, he would have been promoted to the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Narcotics, before his summary dismissal from office.

Olarenwaju is asking the court to set aside the March 24, 2022 Notice of punishment and subsequent dismissal for being unlawful, unconstitutional, null, and void.

The plaintiff also sought an order of the court directing the NDLEA to pay him the sum of N90 million compensation as damages for the violation of his rights.

Olanrewaju in a 77-paragraph statement on oath, traced his ordeal to the SET/SIU Lekki office, Lagos, where he had issues with his senior officers over “their corrupt activities”.

According to him, his seniors were allegedly engaged in collecting bribes from suspects, aiding and abetting, tampering with drugs seized, ensuring the disappearance of files, and refusing to arrest persons caught with hard drugs.

He also claimed to have evidence, including those in his office desktop computer, laptop, and devices, to prove his allegations.

The plaintiff explained that on September 24, 2019, he and other officers of the SET/SIU, collected three kilogramme of heroin from one drug courier at Farm City Lounge, Lekki, close to the SIU office in Lekki but, he was later told, “not to write anything in the report because the 3kg of heroin would be kept as evidence for a future arrest.”

He said he was shocked and displeased by the action and later realised that his superior “had tampered with the 3 kilogramme of heroin”, which ought to have been taken to the NDLEA’s “Central Exhibit for safekeeping”.

Among the reliefs he sought included a declaration that his two orderly room trials that led to his punishment and subsequent dismissal were illegal, unconstitutional null, and void.

While he prayed the court to hold that his arrest, detention for 14 days, out of which 8 days were without food and the search of his house without an order of court violated his fundamental rights to privacy, personal liberty, and dignity of his person.

The claimant prayed the court to hold that he is still validly in the service of NDLEA.

He urged the court for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the NDLEA and its officers from further subjecting him to inhuman and degrading treatment as well as restoration of his monthly salary of eighty-two thousand Naira (N82,000.00k).

He also prayed the court to order the defendants to pay him a total sum of N90 million as compensation for the violation of his rights to privacy, personal liberty, and dignity of his person as guaranteed by section 34 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, and Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Chapter AB (Chapter 10 LFN 1990) and Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948.