The Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of a naval chief, Captain Dada Labinjo, who had been in detention without trial since September last year.
![](https://thenigerialawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026-Summer-IDRI-Masterclass.jpg")
The court, in a judgment by Justice Chuka Obiozor, berated the Nigerian Navy over Labinjo’s detention for about 10 months without charging him to court.
The judge declared that the Nigerian Navy had no justification either under the 1999 Constitution or the Armed Forces Act to detain Labinjo for so long without charging him to court.
Justice Obiozor made the pronouncements while delivering judgment in a fundamental rights enforcement action which Labinjo, through his lawyer, Jerry Omoroghe, filed against the Nigerian Navy.
The judge ordered his unconditional release as well as the release of his mobile phone confiscated by the Navy.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had last week arraigned Labinjo’s wife, Bola, who is a Lieutenant Commander in the Nigerian Navy, alongside four others, for allegedly dealing in petroleum products without lawful authority.
Bola and her co-defendants were arraigned on two counts before the same Justice Obiozor.
The other defendants are Jonathan Abaka, alias Joe Boy; Charles Agaba, Benjamin Gageche and Hamza Yakubu.
Also joined as a defendant was a vessel, M.T. Adeline Jumbo.
The EFCC told the court that the defendants conspired among themselves between August and October 2018 to deal in Automobile Gas Oil (diesel), without the appropriate licence.
According to the EFCC, the defendant committed the offence “within the Nigerian maritime domain and the Gulf of Guinea.”
The prosecution said they acted contrary to sections 3(6) and 1((19)(a)(b) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act Cap. M17 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (Revised Edition) 2004, and were liable to be punished under Section 1(17) of the same Act.
The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty.
Justice Obiozor admitted each of them to bail in the sum of N10m with one surety in like sum.
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