THE COURT IMPRISONS IGP FOR THREE MONTHS.

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 it issued since October 21, 2011, the court ruled in a decision delivered by Justice M. O. Olajuwon.

The court ruled that if the contemptor is still refractory and refuses to cease his contempt at the conclusion of the three months, “he shall be committed for another period and until he ends his contempt.”

Following a lawsuit brought by Mr. Patrick Okoli, a police officer who was forcibly and illegally retired from the Nigerian Police Force, the IGP was sentenced to prison.

Although the Police Service Commission, PSC, approved Okoli’s restoration into the Police, a decision that was upheld by the court, Justice Olajuwon remarked that the IGP failed to abide by the ruling.

As special and general damages for the unlawful, illegal, and unconstitutional deprivation of the applicant’s rights and privileges as a Senior Officer of the Nigeria Police Force from 1993 till the present, the court additionally ordered the payment of N10 million to the applicant.