By Fatima Zahra Muhammad
ASHENEWS reports that a group of retired police officers has approached the National Industrial Court(NICN) with a request to jail the Inspector General of Police over contempt of court.
The officers, in a statement issued in Akure, Ondo State said that the IGP has bounced a ruling of the NICN which asked that the retired officers be reinstated into the police force.
The letter signed on behalf of the other officers by Mr . Emmanuel Idris queried the IGP and the Police Service Commission (PSN) over its refusal to reinstate them into the NPF following their undue and forceful retirement.
“We are members and graduates of Courses 33, 34, and 35 of the Police Academy. We were forcefully retired from the force when we were yet to attain the age of 60 years and neither have we spent 35 years in the police force.
“We approached the National Industrial Court, Abuja, to challenge the action of the force against us and the court, presided over by Hon. Justice Oyewumi Oyebiola, gave an order that we should be reinstated but to our surprise, the police authority has not obeyed the court judgment up till today.
“It could be noted that the police took the action against us because of the issue on our date of first appointment and the issue has been cleared by the court and there was no appeal on the court judgment.
“Incidentally, the police authority had implemented the earlier judgments of the same court involving other police officers, but for inexplicable reasons, the authority refused bluntly to obey the judgment in our own case,” the statement said.
The letter said that the court had ruled in their favor and ordered the IGP to reinstate them to their previous positions since April 2022, but the order was yet to be implemented.
“Take notice that unless you obey the directions contained in the Certificate of Judgment of Court, dated the 19th day of April 2022, you will be guilty of contempt of court and will be liable to be committed to prison,” the letter read.
