By Asuquo Cletus
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has struck out a N3.7bn fundamental rights enforcement suit filed against the Nigerian Navy by a former officer, Dada Labinjo, for lack of merit.
Labinjo, in suit number FHC/L/CS/1860/2025, had dragged the Nigerian Navy, the Attorney General of the Federation, and two others before the court, alleging a violation of his fundamental rights to personal liberty and freedom of movement.
The applicant claimed that the Navy issued a “signal” for his arrest, which he argued was unlawful and infringed on his rights. Through his counsel, Andrew C. Igboekwe (SAN), he sought an order enforcing his fundamental rights, alongside N3.7bn in damages and other reliefs the court might deem appropriate.
As part of actions preceding the suit, a faction of the Nigerian Bar Association, Lagos Branch, had staged a protest on September 10, 2025, condemning the alleged arrest signal.
The branch chairman, Uchenna Ogunedo Akingbade, had described the action as unlawful and a disregard for an existing judgment of the National Industrial Court, urging lawyers to demand redress.
However, counsel to the Nigerian Navy, Ekpedeme Nelson Iyoho, opposed the application, arguing that the suit disclosed no reasonable cause of action capable of invoking the court’s jurisdiction under Section 46(1) of the 1999 Constitution.
Iyoho further contended that the purported arrest signal relied upon by the applicant was unsigned and therefore legally invalid.
He told the court that “an unsigned document has no legal efficacy and is worthless,” adding that the claim was speculative and amounted to an abuse of court process intended to harass and distract the respondents from pursuing a pending appeal in a related matter.
Delivering judgment on April 2, 2026, Justice Lewis Allagoa held that the suit lacked merit and consequently struck it out in its entirety.
The court agreed with the respondents that the key document presented by the applicant was unsigned and could not be relied upon as evidence, thereby weakening the foundation of the case.
