Lawyer asks Court to compel Buhari to name new IGP
By Modupe Shodeinde
A lawyer, Maxwell Okpara, has filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, to compel the President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigeria Police Council to name Mohammed Adamu’s replacement.
The suit filed on Wednesday, requested that the court stop Mohammed Adamu from functioning as the Inspector-General of police, after he attained the maximum service period of 35 years on February 1.
The President, Mr Adamu, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and the Nigeria Police Council (NPC) are named as the four defendants.
Okpara citing section 215 of the Nigerian Constitution and section 7 of the Nigeria Police Act, 2020, asked that the court determine if Adamu could “validly continue to function as the Inspector General of Police not being a serving member of the Nigeria Police Force as from midnight of February 1, 2021.”
He also asked the court to determine if failure of President Buhari and the NPC to appoint the new IGP since February 1 “does not constitute abdication of their duties.”
Okpara requested that the court stop Adamu from lawfully functioning as the Inspector-General of Police and declare any action taken by him thereafter as “illegal, null, void and constitute a breach of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Nigeria Police Act”.
Also, in his prayer, he asked that President Buhari and the NPC, be declared guilty of “abdication of their duties” by their failure to appoint a new IGP since February 1.
He also called for a restraining order to prevent Adamu from further acting as the Inspector-General of Police or exercising any form of command over the Nigeria Police Force.
He requested that the court order Buhari to immediately appoint Adamu’s replacement.
