On Monday, a Federal High Court in Lagos awarded Mr Andrew Asaboru N1 million in damages for the mistreatment he endured at the hands of the Nigerian Navy during his nine-month detention onboard the vessel, MT Alexander J.
The case was presided over by Justice T. Ringim, who determined that the Nigerian Navy unjustly detained the petitioner and members of his crew.
On September 11, 2022, Nigerian Navy Ship Kano apprehended Mr Asaboru, a deck officer onboard the MT Alexander J and the rest of his crew at Cotonou anchorage. The vessel had departed Lagos anchorage on September 7 for machinery trials just four days before their apprehension.
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Mr Asaboru, the petitioner, told News Digest that the Nigerian Navy was holding the vessel because it had turned off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) at the time of detention and did not have navy authorization for the trials.
“When we got to Lome offshore, we had machinery breakdown of both the engine and back-up generator leading to total blackout and began to drift until we got to Cotonou anchorage,” Mr Asaboru explained why its AIS was off at the time of arrest. “They thought we were involved in an illicit activity and proceeded towards us.”
However, after its investigation, the Nigerian Navy proceeded to detain the crew men onboard the vessel for nine months, until Monday, when Justice T. Ringim granted their unconditional release.
In a further assessment of the circumstances surrounding the arrest and subsequent detention, the court noted that the Nigerian Navy, led by Lt CMD Ismail Adamu, refused to carry out an EFCC directive to release the detainees on March 22, 2023, despite having cleared them of any wrongdoing.
In his decision, Justice Ringim decided in favour of the petitioner, fining the Nigerian Navy N1 million in damages.
