Usman Alkali Baba, the Inspector-General of Police, was given a three-month prison term by the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday for violating a legitimate court order.
The IGP should be committed to prison and remanded in custody for three months, or until he complies with an order issued on October 21, 2011, the court ruled in a decision delivered by Justice M. O. Olajuwon.
“If at the end of the three months, the contemnor remains recalcitrant and still refuses to purge his contempt, he shall be committed for another period and until he purges his contempt”, the court held.
Following a lawsuit brought by Mr. Patrick Okoli, a police officer who was forcibly and illegally retired from the Nigerian Police Force.
Justice Olajuwon noted that though the Police Service Commission, PSC, recommended Okoli’s reinstatement into the Police, a decision that was affirmed by the court, the IGP, refused to comply with the order.
The court had also ordered the payment of a million to the Applicant, being special and general damages for the unlawful, illegal, and unconstitutional denial of his rights and privileges as a Senior Officer of the Nigeria Police Force from 1993 till date.
