As Okiro endorses four-year tenure for Egbetokun

Nigeria Police Force has agreed to obey the judgment of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria on the reinstatement of some officers, forcefully retired from service in 2021.

The ex-officers, who were members of Courses 33, 34, and 35 of the Nigeria Police Academy, were said to have been forcefully retired from the police service in 2021, when they had not attained the mandatory age of 60 or 35 years in service.

The affected ex-police officers had challenged the action of the police at NICN, Abuja, and got a favourable judgment in April 2022, but the defendants, the IGP, the Police Service Commission, and the Secretary of the Police Force, allegedly refused to enforce the judgment.

The claimants went back to court seeking an order over the IGP’s disobedience to the court, which had ordered the police force to reinstate them into service since 2022.

Following the NICN verdict, it was gathered that the police force ordered the concerned officers to report to Abuja in August 2024 for documentation with the expectation that they would be immediately reabsorbed into the force thereafter, but after the documentation, nothing was heard from the force on the matter.

However, in the Certified True Copy of the latest court committal proceeding held last week, the claimants, represented by their lawyer, Adeleke Agbola, SAN, prayed the court to maintain the status quo (reinstatement of the officers) pending the hearing of the contempt case.

But the counsel for the NPF, Ade Adedeji, SAN, told the court efforts were being made by the police to obey the court order, giving assurance that the judgment would be obeyed for the concerned officers. He also stated that he had sworn an affidavit in that regard.

“We have taken steps to obey the court’s judgment. The judgment is not challenged as there is no appeal. It is final. The circular has nothing to do with the claimants. It is without prejudice to the parties in this matter,” he said.

MEANWHILE, former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mike Okiro, has expressed support for the Federal Government’s decision to legalise a four-year tenure for the office of the Inspector-General of Police, describing it as a necessary reform to enhance stability, tangible reforms and long-term planning in the Nigeria Police Force.

Speaking on the recent amendment on Arise Television, which ensures fixed four-year tenure for the IGP, Okiro noted that the move aligned with his earlier recommendation during his tenure as Chairman of Police Service Commission.

He said he was the one who wrote the recommendation to government while he was holding sway at the PSC. He emphasised that short tenures of IGPs often disrupted policing strategies, as successive leaders had different agenda, making it difficult to achieve sustained security reforms.