Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has slammed the continued stay in office of the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, calling it illegal.
In a statement released on Tuesday and signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA claimed that Baba’s decision to remain in office after turning 60 and accruing 35 years of active service was unlawful and in violation of both the Police Act of 2020 and the rules of the Police Service Commission.
Four days after the presidential election, on March 1, 2023, the IGP turned 60, although Mohammed Dinggyadi, the Minister of Police Affairs, had defended the police chief’s continuing employment by saying that “the topic of IG going out during this election period does not exist.”
However, HURIWA’s Onwubiko said the current Police chief was violating the law, the constitution and the public service rule by continually parading himself as the IGP, adding that the President, Major General Muhammad Buhari (retd.), was “promoting lawlessness and executive rascality,” by allowing his continued stay in office.
“The illegal occupation of the office of IGP Usman Alkali Baba who ought to have retired from the Nigeria Police statutorily alongside his mates earlier in March, is really worrisome.
“As a retired police officer who reached 60 years of age in line with a binding Public Service Rule which is not vitiated or voided by the Police Act of 2020, the man parading about as IGP is violating the law, the constitution and the public service rule and as the number one law enforcement authority.
“It is thoroughly disgraceful for Nigeria as a nation that someone who ought to have retired is still being kept around as IGP under the nebulous interpretation of the Police Act which does not invalidate the Public Service Act. President Muhammadu Buhari is promoting lawlessness and executive rascality in letting the retired policeman still go about wearing uniform as the IGP.”