Ukatu Afamefuna Mallinson the managing Director of Mallinson & Partners Ltd who was alleged of containers containing 1,284 cartons of Tramadol worth N22billion in 2019 has filed a fundamental rights suit asking the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to order the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to release him “forthwith” and “unconditionally” or upon such terms as the court may deem fit.
Ukatu was also claimed to e behind a N3 billion shipment of Tramadol linked to the disgraced police chief, Abba Kyari.
Ukatu, asides protesting his innocence, also averred that the NDLEA not only failed to arraign him in court, despite there being a 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 prayed 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.
