by Culled From LoyalNigerianLawyer
Recall that the tenure of Mr. Mohammed Adamu as the Inspector General of Police which expired on the 1st day of February 2021 was further extended by 3 months.
The leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association have looked at the said tenure extension, and is of the considered opinion that the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, does not have the powers to extend the tenure of the Inspector General of Police and that such extension is unconstitutional.
Consequently, the Nigerian Bar Association through the NBA Public Interest Litigation Committee (NBA-PILC), has instituted a suit at the Federal High Court challenging the said tenure elongation.
In the Suit, the NBA seeks judicial determination of the constitutionality of the President’s extension of Mr Adamu’s tenure as the Inspector-General of Police for three months after Mr Adamu had, on 1 Feburary 2021, attained thirty-five years of service as a member of the Nigeria Police Force.
The NBA’s decision to take this extraordinary line of action is underpinned by an urgent need, and a sacred duty, to reassert the supremacy of the rule of law in the face of growing impunity and the seeming reluctance of Law Officers in Government to give proper counsel.
The NBA’s position in the Suit is that Mr Adamu ceased to be a member of the Nigeria Police Force when he attained the milestone of thirty-five years of service. Therefore, the President’s extension of Mr Adamu’s tenure by three months, in the NBA’s respectful view, is unconstitutional.
In the grand scheme of things, the NBA is wary that the more government officials casually violate the law, the harder it would become to expect citizens to be compliant. Citizens take their cues from their leaders and public office holders who flout the laws of the country that they are meant to uphold will discover sooner or later that their examples will be followed by those that they purport to govern.
