By Chinedu Obike
To many, it will not come as a surprise that the Inspector General of Police has gone to the Supreme Court to seek final adjudication on the issue of recruitment into the force.
Recall the economyonline had predicted the development when a 3-man panel of Appeal Court judges sitting in Abuja, had held that the responsibility for the contentious recruitment lies with the Police Service Commission, not with the IGP and the Police Force.
Presumably eager to enhance the manpower needs of the force and ensure security for the over 200 million people estimated to inhabit Nigeria, The IGP had embarked on the recruitment of 10,000 constables, but in what some have interpreted as a show of force or supremacy, the PSC disagreed and approached the courts.
In a swift reaction to the Appeal Court verdict which nullified the exercise he superintended, the IGP, Mr Mohammed Adamu, applied for a stay of execution.
In fact, Dr Alex Izinyon (SAN), acting on behalf of the IGP & NPF, had fired a letter to the PSC & its Counsel, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), requesting that nothing be done to enforce the judgement until after the appeal and motion for injunction filed against the Court of Appeal ruling, insisting, among other grounds:
“that the court erred I law when it 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 provisions of paragraph 30 Part 1 of the 3rd Schedule to the 1999 constitution”.
The appellants are therefore seeking an order setting aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal, dismissing the appeal filed by the PSC and affirming the Federal High Court verdict, which held that the IGP had the power to recruit.
While it is easy to see a no-love lost relationship between the Police Service Commission and the Inspector General of Police, it is certainly difficult to predict how the Supreme Court will eventually decide the matter.