JUST IN: I-G Alkali Baba to spend 3 months in jail

IGP Alkali Baba

The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba is to spend three months in prison for refusing to comply with a valid court order.

Justice M. O. Olajuwon of Federal High Court sitting in Abuja ordered committal of the IGP to prison on Tuesday while ruling in a suit filed by a police officer, Patrick Okoli

Okoli had gone to court with complaints that he was unlawfully and compulsorily retired from the Nigerian Police Force

The court, in a ruling delivered on October 21, 2011 agreed with him and ordered his reinstatement into the police.

In addition, the court had also ordered the payment of N10 million to Okoli as special and general damages for the unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional denial of his rights and privileges as a Senior Officer of the Nigeria Police Force from 1993 till date.

But police has refused to comply with the order more that 10 years after.

In the judgment on Tuesday, Justice Olajuwon noted that the IGP refused to comply with the court order despite the fact that the Police Service Commission, PSC, had also recommended Okoli’s reinstatement into the Police, a decision that was affirmed by the court, the IGP.

“If at the end of the three months, the contemnor remains recalcitrant and still refuses to purge his contempt, he shall be committed for another period and until he purges his contempt”, the court held.

.