The Nigerian Bar Association has urged the Federal High Court in Lagos to declare as illegal the decision of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to keep the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, in office after his tenure expired.

Adamu was due for retirement on February 1, 2021, the day he clocked 35 years in the Nigeria Police Force.

However, the President granted him a three-month extended stay in office as IGP.

But the NBA, in its suit, contended that the President acted illegally, saying his action violated Section 215(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution as well as sections 7(3) and (6) and 18(8) of the Nigeria Police Act 2020.

The body of Nigerian lawyers, therefore, urged the court to make “an order setting aside the purported elongation of the tenure of the 3rd (IG) defendant as the Inspector-General of Police of Nigeria.”

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Listed as the 1st-3rd defendants in the suit marked FHC/L/CS/24/2021 are President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Police Service Commission; and Adamu, respectively.

The NBA is also urging the court to make an order directing Adamu to “vacate forthwith the office of the Inspector-General of Police and refund all salaries, allowances and benefits received from February 1, 2020 (when he retired from the Police Force) to the coffers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The NBA prayed the court to perpetual restrain the President from further violating the country’s Constitution by purported elongating the tenure of an occupant of the IGP office.

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Explaining the rationale behind the suit, the NBA President, Mr Olumide Akpata, in a separate statement on Friday, said, “The NBA’s decision to take this extraordinary line of action is underpinned by an urgent need, and a sacred duty, to reassert the supremacy of the rule of law in the face of growing impunity and the seeming reluctance of law officers in government to give proper counsel.”