After one year in detention, Naval captain, Dada Labinjo, is to breathe air of freedom once again courtesy of a Federal High Court in Lagos, which granted him bail.
Justice Muslim Hassan, on Monday ordered that Labinjo be released on bail which he put at the sum of N10m with one surety, who must own a landed property in Lagos, and must show evidence of three years’ tax payment.
In the meantime, the judge ordered that Labinjo should be released to his lawyer, Jerry Omoregie, pending when he would meet the bail conditions within 15 days.
The court directed the lawyer to submit his Certificate of Call to Bar to the its registrar as a guarantee that he would produce his client for trial.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had arraigned Labinjo, his wife, Bola and a Lieutenant Commander in the navy, on two counts of dealing in petroleum products without lawful authority.
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The Commission told the court that the defendants conspired among themselves between August and October 2018 to deal in Automative Gas Oil (diesel) without an appropriate licence.
According to the anti-graft body, the defendants committed the offences “within the Nigerian maritime domain and the Gulf of Guinea.”
It 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 pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The other defendants were also admitted to bail on similar terms with Labinjo
