IGP Adamu Says His Term Ends 2023

The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Mohammed Adamu has said that his term in office does not end before 2023 as he Monday dismissed a petition against his continued stay in office beyond February 1, 2021.

In a counter-affidavit to a suit filed by a lawyer, Maxwell Opara that his continued stay in office beyond his 35 years in service was a violation of the law, Adamu submitted that the office of the Inspector General was excluded from the general rules guiding the police.

He submitted by the provisions of the Police Act which provided a four year tenure for the Inspector General of Police that from his appointment he could stay up to 2023. Indeed, to rub it further on Opara, he said that he could even further stay up to 2024 if his tenure was made to count from when the new Police Act came into force.

In the counter affidavit filed by his lawyer, Alex Iziyon, SAN, Adamu said that he was by virtue of his appointment a quasi-political office holder who was picked as a serving police office and bound by the regulations of the new Police Act.

Opara had sued the president and the IGP over Adamu’s continued stay in office beyond 35 years as a police officer.

But countering on the note that section 7(6) of the Nigeria Police Act, signaled a new legal regime, he said that “the office of the Inspector-General of Police is conferred with a special status, unique and distinct from other officers of the Nigeria Police force.”

The IGP upon appointment “is only accountable to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Nigeria Police Council and this fact we submit makes his office a quasi-political office with a tenure of four (4) years pursuant to Section 7(6) of the Nigeria Police Act, 2020,” a situation IGP Adamu said has made it that his term in office does not end before 2023.

“Therefore based on our submission above, the combined effect of Sections 215 and 216 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Section 7 of the Nigeria Police Act, 2020, is that the 2nd defendant can validly function as the Inspector General of Police after midnight of February 1, 2021 in so far as he was a serving member of the Nigeria Police Force during the period of his appointment, as his tenure in office is specially regulated by Section 7(6) of the Nigeria Police Act which stipulates in unambiguous terms that upon his appointment he stays in office for four(4) years.

“Therefore, if the 2nd defendant’s tenure in office is calculated from January 15, 2019 when he was appointed into the office of the Inspector General of Police, his tenure lapse in 2023.

“However, if his tenure in office is calculated from 2020 when the Nigeria Police Act, 2020 came into force. his tenure in office ends in 2024,” his lawyer noted before the court.

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