Thirty Assistant Inspectors General of Police, who were retired to pave way for the promotion of the current Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, have challenged their retirement at the National Industrial Court.
The retired officers sued President Muhammadu Buhari, Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami and Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, for what they termed ‘influenced’ retirement.
Also joined as co-defendants in the suit, which came up for mention, are the Police Service Commission and the Nigeria Police Force.
The officers said the force was ‘influenced’ to retire them, and therefore sought the powers of the court to interpret certain parts of the constitution binding on the Police Service Commission and its retirement processes.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, while in an acting capacity allegedly wrote to the presidency to retire the 30 senior officers.
It was also alleged that the officers who were from the rank of Assistant Inspector-General, AIG, of police, were eventually retired at the instance of the IGP.
The officers are praying the court to interpret certain laws in line with their retirement which they claimed was influenced.
The officers’ counsel, J.U. Pius, told the court that all defendants in the suit were duly served notices on August 16, 2016, to appear in court today but failed to enter appearance.
He prayed the court for an adjourned date to hear the substantive matter.
However, the court’s records showed that only one defendant, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was served notice.
The judge, Rakiya Haastrup, adjourned the case till February 22 for further mention.
She ordered that notices be duly served on all five defendants in the suit before the adjourned date.
