“The provision of section 127 of the Police Act and Regulation 127 thereof, which applies to unmarried women police officers getting pregnant while in service but does not apply to unmarried male police officers impregnating females while they are in service is discriminatory”
The National Industrial Court (NIC) has voided Regulation 127 of the Nigeria Police Force, which forbids unmarried female officers from getting pregnant.
According to the regulation, any female officer who gets pregnant outside wedlock will be dismissed.
Recall that in 2021, an unmarried police corporal attached to Iye-Ekiti station, Omolola Olajide was sacked for getting pregnant outside wedlock.
The Commissioner of Police, Babatunde Mobayo relied on the regulation to sack Olajide.
The Ekiti state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Olawale Fapohunda had kicked against her sack and instituted a lawsuit before a Federal High Court seeking an order to nullify section 127 of the Police Act.
But the court dismissed the suit on the grounds that it is an abuse of court process since a similar suit filed by Olajide is pending before the NIC.
At the NIC, the presiding judge in the court’s Akure division, Dashe Damulak while delivering judgment in the suit marked NICN/AK/14/2021, held that the particular section of the police regulation is “discriminatory, illegal, null and void”.
The court held that the regulation “violates section 42 of the (Nigerian) constitution and article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights Ratification and Enforcement Act which abolished discrimination on basis of gender.”
“The court… finds and holds that the provision of section 127 of the Police Act and Regulation 127 thereof, which applies to unmarried women police officers getting pregnant while in service but does not apply to unmarried male police officers impregnating females while they are in service, is discriminatory against unmarried women police officers by section 1(3) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.
“If any law is inconsistent with the provision of this constitution, this constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall to the extent of its inconsistency be void,” the judge said.
Although the court nullified the ‘discriminatory’ regulation, the judge said Olajide cannot be reinstated into the police force.
The judge held that the claimant’s dismissal could not be reversed as she was on probation at the time of her sack from the force.
The judge, however, awarded aggravated damages of N5 million for the violation of Olajide’s fundamental right to freedom from discrimination.
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