A lawyer requests that the IG’s term not be extended.

In order to prevent Major General Muhammadu Buhari (ret.) from extending Usman Baba’s term as the Inspector-General of Police while a move on notice is being heard and decided, Mr. Maxwell Opara, a lawyer, has asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

Opara specifically requests that the Appeal Court rule on the question of whether an individual may continue to serve as the IG after leaving the ranks of the police.
By March 1, 2023, when he will be 60, the current IG’s term is anticipated to be over.

The attorney informed the court in a motion exparte that an appeal on the question of whether the President has the authority to let an occupant of the IG’s office to stay in office after he is no longer a serving police officer is now underway.

He said that Buhari expressed his desire to let the incumbent IG to stay in office while the appeal was still ongoing and set for hearing.

The lawyer thus declared that any document AlkBabaali signs after March 1 would be void.
Mohammed Adamu Lafia, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and the Nigeria Police Council have been added as respondents in the appeal with the President’s file number CA/A/ABJ/CS/106/2021.

The attorney claimed in his affidavit in support of the petition for an interlocutory injunction that he filed the lawsuit that gave birth to the appeal at the Federal High Court, Abuja, while pleading for an expedited hearing of the case by the appellate court to prevent destroying the subject matter.

In the document, he claimed that the trial court had rejected his lawsuit in a decision made on June 18, 2021.

The first respondent (Buhari), through the Minister for Police Affairs, announced that he intends to allow the current IG, who will stop being a serving police officer on March 2023, to continue to hold the office of the IGP, he said. “That the appeal has been adjourned to February 16 for hearing and while the appeal is still in effect and adjourned for hearing,” he said.

He questioned if it was lawful to let a retired police officer hold the position of IGP and said that Buhari’s move to prolong the IG’s term over the officer’s retirement date violated both the 1999 constitution and the Nigeria Police Act, 2020.

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