Police recruitment: IGP approaches Supreme Court

… Seeks stay of execution of Appeal Court’s judgment

TRACKING___The Inspector General of Police , Muhammed Adamu has approached the Supreme Court seeking to challenge the judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on September 30, 2020, which set aside the December 2, 2019 judgment by Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja where he upheld the powers of the IGP to recruit new hands into the NPF and approved the recruitment of 10,000 constables carried out by the police in 2019.
New Telegraph reports that there has been a lingering dispute over who, between the Police Service Commission (PSC) and the office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), has the power to conduct recruitment of constables into the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, headed by Justice Olabisi Ige, in its unanimous judgment, held that the IGP and the NPF are without the power to conduct recruitment of constables, and that such powers are with the PSC and proceeded to void the last recruitment by the IGP.
The appeal by the IGP was filed on October 2, 2020 through his counsel Alex Izinyon (SAN).
Izinyon also filed a motion for stay of execution of the judgment by the Court of Appeal and wrote the Chairman of the PSC on the need not to take any step to enforce the judgment in view of the motion for injunction his client filed.
Part of the letter dated October 2, 2020, reads: “In view of the above, and the settled position of the law, having regards to these two notices, nothing should be done by whatsoever means in enforcing the judgment in the circumstances, especially having regards to the national security and implication under any guise of such enforcement.”
In the notice of appeal filed for the IGP and the NPF, it was argued that the Court of Appeal “erred in law when they held that the provision of section 71 of the Nigeria Police Regulations 1968 made pursuant to section 46 of the Police Act is inconsistent with the provision of paragraph 30 Part I of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution.”
The appellants are contending that Section 71 of the Nigeria Police Regulations (NPR) 1968, particularly conferred on the IGP “the power and responsibility of enlisting recruit constables”, while under “Paragraph 30 Part I of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution and Section 6 of the PSC (Establishment) Act, 2001, the 1st respondent (PSC) is empowered to appoint persons to offices in the 1st appellant (NPF).”
They added that the lower court “was on error in its findings that the provision of Section 71 of the Nigerian Police Regulations, 1968 made pursuant to Section 46 of the Police Act is inconsistent with the provision of paragraph 30 Part I of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution”.
The appellants also argued that the Appeal Court erred in law when it held that the IGP and the NPF “are not conferred with powers to enlist recruit constables”
They added that the Court of Appeal erred in law when it held that the PSC was conferred with powers to enlist recruit constables into the NPF by virtue of the provision of paragraph 30 of Paragraph 30, Part I of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution.
According to the appellants, “the unequivocal power conferred the 1st respondent by virtue of paragraph 30, Part I of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution is the power ‘to appoint person into offices in the 1st applicant’ and not one for the enlistment of recruit constables as conferred on the 1st appellant.”
They want the Supreme Court to void the judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on September 30, 2020, and in its place, restore the December 2, 2019 judgment of the Federal High Court delivered by Justice Ekwo, which the Appeal Court set aside.