The Nigerian Navy has responded to the motley of allegations leveled its leadership by one of its retired officers, urging him to seek redress in a competent court of law instead of whipping up public sentiment.

The Director of Navy Information (DNI), Rear Admiral Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan stated this in his response to Kristina Reports enquiry regarding the allegations made by retired Commodore Promise Dappa.

“He is free to exercise his fundamental right by approaching the courts of law instead of whipping up sentiment before the public courts.”

He accused Cdre Dappa rtd. Of embarking on a campaign of calumny against the Nigerian Navy, pointing out that from Dappa’s claims, the Navy high command is exculpated from culpability in his perceived victimization.

“Particularly, embarking on a mission of calumny against the current navy authority, which in Dappa’s testimony has no connection with his perceived victimization.”

Rear Admiral Ayo-Vaughan stated that the issues raised by Commodore Promise Dappa were addressed by a Committee in the National Assembly before which the retired officer presented his case. He, however, did not state which committee in which of the chambers of the National Assembly dealt with the matter.

“The retired senior officer has presented his case before the appropriate Committee at the NASS, and it was trashed out for lack of merit.”

Decribing Commodore Dappa’s agitations as mudslinging against the Nigerian Navy, Rear Admiral Ayo-Vaughan, however, stated that the service would not allow itself to be dragged into such campaign of calumny.

“This is mudslinging, and the Nigerian Navy will not be dragged into it.”

In the purveyance of his grievances, the retired naval officer had accused the leadership of the Nigerian Navy of denying him promotion thrice.

He claimed that this was due to reservations some senior officers who deem his performance at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency as maritime guard commander as unbecoming had against him.

He stated that his diligent prosecution of the fight against oil theft irked some of his seniors thus leading to their coalescing against his career progress in the Navy.

He insisted that the crux of the matter before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions was that amongst other demands, he asked for the Nigerian Navy to tender before the committee the report of the Navy’s Promotion Examination Board which he claimed was favourable to his performance.

The Navy spokesman, however, asserted in his response to Kristina Reports that “the reports of the Nigerian Navy Promotion Examination Boards are not for public consumption”.

Concerned close watchers of the development are worried that this spat between the Nigerian Navy and one of its retired officers does not bode well for its campaign against infractions in the nation’s maritime space, especially, in line with the President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope mantra.

An aspect of the Renewed Hope agenda of the current administration is the harnessing of the full potentials of Nigeria’s blue economy and deploying same for the country’s economic redemption, and the Nigerian Navy has very critical and strategic roles to play in achieving this objective.

One of them, a top official of one of the intelligence services, who preferred anonymity, urged the President to intervene and direct a review of the Navy’s internal conflict resolution mechanisms with a view to helping the armed service reposition and fully focus on asserting security governance on the nation’s maritime space which is its core mandate.