Judge Sentences IGP To 3 Months In Jail For Disobeying Court Orders

The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, has been sentenced to three months imprisonment for disobeying the order of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.

Justice M. O. Olajuwon gave the ruling in an application instituted by a police officer, Mr. Patrick Okoli, who was illegally sacked by the Nigerian Police Force leadership.

The Police Service Commission, PSC, had directed the NPF to reinstate Okoli but the directive was not followed.

The court subsequently agreed with the PSC ordering the IGP to comply immediately.

In the judge’s ruling on Tuesday, she held the IGP failed to comply with her orders and convicted him for contempt of court.

“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 judge said.

The court also gave the IGP leverage to immediately obey her orders amid the conviction.