‘Navy is not above the law’ — families of detainees demand their release

Family members of 22 Nigerians detained by the Nigerian navy have called on the authorities to free the detainees after nine months without trial. 

It was a moment of tears and lamentation on Thursday when the families gathered in Lagos for a press conference organised by the Centre Against Impunity (CAI).

In April,  Femi Falana, human rights lawyer, had raised the alarm over the detention of Dada Labinjo, a navy captain, Sherifat Ibe Lambert (also known as Mrs Bola Labinjo), a lt. commander, and 13 others who have been detained since September 2018 for an undisclosed offence. 

Although, a court had ordered their release, the naval authorities refused to comply with the order. 

WE DON’T KNOW THEIR OFFENCE  

While addressing the conference, Shina Loremikan, national coordinator of CAI, said family members of the detainees are worried because they don’t know their whereabouts and have been denied access to them. 

“We’ve not heard anything. We spoke to people in the DSS, and we were told that the navy was yet to bring the matter to their attention. They said they wouldn’t know why the arrest was made,” he said.

“We sent a journalist to go check, and the navy told us the detainees were missing. We became more worried. You arrested them in Apapa and took them to Abuja, how can you say they are missing? They said they are obeying last order. And up till today, none of us, including their family members have been told why these persons were arrested.”

Loremikan also said their detention without trial for almost a year is contrary to the provisions of the constitution, adding that it had become worrisome that the navy has made it a habit to disobey a valid court order. 

“One is bound therefore to ask why the Nigerian navy is refusing to obey the order of federal high court directing the release of all these Nigerian citizens. Is Nigerian navy above the constitution?” he asked.

“It’s appalling that Nigerian navy that is supposed to set good example for other institutions to follow, but they have instead shown a flagrant disobedience to lawful court order by openly promoting lawlessness in our nation from the vantage point of their power and position.

“Labinjo and his wife , other families involved in this unlawful arrest and detention have suffered untold hardships because their breadwinner have been incarcerated unjustly.”

PLEASE, FREE OUR HUSBANDS 

Some of the family members of the detainees who spoke with TheCable said they were yet to understand why the detainees have been kept away for so long without trial.

“In September, my husband called me and said their ship was under arrest and that the reason for the arrest was not known to them,” Melyn Yakubu, wife of one of the detainees, said. 

“They were arrested and kept on board the ship for one month with no movement. Nobody was allowed to go on board or come down. As at that time, my second son was admitted into school and there were some documents my husband needed to sign. 

“I had to go on board the ship to get my husband sign the document, and navy personnel with guns threatened that they were going to fire me if I came near the ship, and they did not allow me give my husband the papers to sign.”

Yakubu said her husband, who has high blood pressure, later fell sick but was refused access to her husband. 

“There was no way I could get his drugs to him. There was no way I could see him, and I knew he was dying,” she said.

The last time Yakubu heard from her husband was October 15 – a month they had been held aboard the ship- when he called to tell her they had been moved to Abuja.  

It is a similar case with that of Bose Segun, Ijeoma Gageche, Blessing Ojerugba and other women whose husbands are yet to return since September. 

“It has not been easy holding on. Our first daughter got admitted into the university and the painful thing is that my husband has always been there for our girl and it’s sad we couldn’t even get access to him to inform him that after many years, his daughter is now an undergraduate. Please, the navy should free our husbands,” she said.

If not for the intervention of some old detainees at the navy facilities in Lagos, Abdulazeez Nurudeen who went in search of his brother after hearing of his arrest would have also ended up in detention. 

“I left work and went in search of my brother at the navy premises,” he told TheCable. 

“He is the breadwinner of the family and he just got a kid two months before he went on board. I had to trace him there. I begged my way in. While I was in, my phone rang and before I knew it the navy personnel descended on me and gave me the beating of my life. I was locked up for hours until old detainees begged that I should be freed.” 

Suleman Dahun, navy’s director of information, promised to get back when TheCable contacted him.