Some retired police officers on Monday protested the failure of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, to reinstate them to service despite a court order to the effect.
The officers also called on the National Industrial Court to commit the IGP to prison for disobeying the order.
The officers, who claimed to have joined the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in 1996, 1999 and 2000, said they were forcefully retired from service when some of them had not reached the age of 60 and had yet to spend 35 years in service.
They made the call in a release made available by one of them, Emmanuel Idris, to newsmen in Akure, Ondo State.
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The National Industrial Court presided over by Justice Oyebiola Oyewumi had on April 19, 2022, asked the IGP, the Police Service Commission (PSC) and the force secretary to reinstate the officers.
The judge gave the verdict in suit No NICN/ABJ/281/2021 filed by Messrs Egong Egwu Egong, Omeh Felix Okechukwu, Paul Obot Umoh and Galadima Bello, wherein the plaintiffs asked the court to nullify their retirement.
In a January 23, letter addressed to the IGP by the court’s registrar, Mrs Rufai Zainab Ahmed, the court warned him and other defendants against disobeying the judgment or else would face the consequence, which was imprisonment.
Idris, in the statement, said most of the members and graduates of Course 33, 34, and 35 of the Police Academy were affected by the disengagement.
He explained that since the judgment was delivered, the IGP and other defendants in the case were yet to obey the order.