Resolve dismissed officer, Senate tells Navy

The Senate has directed the Nigerian Navy to promptly calculate and pay salaries and allowances owed to dismissed officer Ewato Flaubert Oluwadolapo.

However, the Senate upheld his dismissal, which was ordered by Navy authorities for establishing an illegal blockade. This serves as a warning to other employees who may consider engaging in similar misconduct.

The Senate resolution came after the presentation of a report by Senator Neda Imasuen (LP Edo Sul), Chairperson of the Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions. According to the guideline, Ewato’s compensation was to cover the period from his return from Absence Without Official Leave (AWOL) until confirmation of his dismissal by the Navy.

Senator Imasuen recounted that during a plenary session on July 20, 2023, Senator Abiru M. Adetokunbo (Lagos East) presented a petition from Mr. Ewato Flaubert Oluwadolapo, who alleged unfair dismissal and non-payment of his salaries and subsidies. The petition urged the Senate to investigate and seek his reinstatement.

The Senate then forwarded the petition to the Ethics and Code of Conduct Committee for further legislative action. The committee concluded that the officer’s summary judgment complied with regulations governing the Nigerian Armed Forces and that his dismissal was necessary to maintain discipline within the Navy.

After analyzing the testimonies of Mr. Oluwadolapo and Rear Admiral SD Atakpa, representative of the Chief of Naval Staff, the commission made several observations. They noted that Oluwadolapo served in the Navy from January 2013 until his dismissal was confirmed on June 16, 2022. He committed several infractions including being absent for over a year, abandoning his duty station and setting up an illegal blockade along the Lokoja. – Abuja Road.

The committee revealed that he had been demoted from seaman to ordinary seaman after being found guilty of being absent without leave from 1 June 2020 to 27 June 2021. Despite his return to duty on 27 June 2021 and subsequent demotion , the Navy did not compensate him for his work until his dismissal on January 25, 2022.

The evidence presented included a handwritten confession by Oluwadolapo, in which he admitted to abandoning his post and creating the illegal roadblock to extort money from motorists, citing financial difficulties as the reason.

The committee concluded that Oluwadolapo’s dismissal resulted not from his AWOL status, but specifically from the illegal roadblock incident for which he was summarily tried and found guilty. Ultimately, the Senate determined that the Nigerian Navy owed Mr. Oluwadolapo his salaries and allowances from June 27, 2021, until the confirmation of his dismissal on June 16, 2022.