Lawyer asks court to stop Adamu operating as IGP

An Abuja-based lawyer, Maxwell Okpara, has approached the Abuja Federal High Court to ask for an order to prevent Mohammed Adamu from parading himself as Inspector General of Police.

In a suit, marked FHC / ABJ / CS / 106/2021, the plaintiff prayed the court to declare as illegal, “all actions Adamu took as head of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), after February 1, 2021.”

He urged the court to prevent Adamu from exercising any form of command over the NPF, insisting that his tenure as the IGP, after the mandatory retirement service age of 35, is illegal and unconstitutional.

Other defendants in the suit are President Muhammadu Buhari, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, as well as the Nigerian Police Council.

In a 10-paragraph affidavit, the plaintiff argued that Adamu ceased being a police officer as of midnight of February 1, 2021, when he reached the retirement age of 35, under the Police Law.

He asked the court to determine whether the failure of President Buhari and the Nigerian Police Council to appoint another IGP, after the post became vacant due to Adamu’s retirement, did not constitute an abdication of their duties.

The plaintiff stated, “That the second defendant, although he was no longer a serving police officer, continued to function as the inspector general of police, sitting in the office of the inspector general of police and wearing the official uniform of an inspector general of police.”

He said the defendants would continue to act in violation of the Nigerian Constitution and police law, except that the court intervened.

He, among other things, prayed the court to determine whether, “under the provisions of sections 215 and 216 of the Constitution and section 7 of the Nigeria Police Act 2020, Adamu can continue to function validly as an IGP, without being a service member of the Nigerian police after midnight February 1, 2021.

“Furthermore, If the failure of the President and the Nigerian Police Council to appoint an IG on February 1, 2021 does not constitute an abdication of their duties under Section 215 of the Constitution and Section 7 of the Nigeria Police Act, 2020.”

The plaintiff said that “if the questions are answered in the affirmative, the court should declare that, by law, Adamu could no longer legally continue to function as an IGP as of midnight on February 1, 2021, and that all actions it took thereafter were illegal, null and void; and a violation of the Constitution and the Police Law.”

He asked the court for an order prohibiting Adamu from “posing as an IG or exercising any form of command or control over the Nigerian Police without being a serving police officer.”

The plaintiff is also seeking an order compelling President Buhari to immediately appoint a new IGP in accordance with the provisions of Section 7 of the police law.

No date, however, has been fixed for hearing of the case.