Court of Appeal declares Police Act unconstitutional, voids recruitment of 10,000 constables

‎The Court of Appeal has declared the Police Act 2020 as unconstitutional ‎as it affects the constitutional mandate of the Police Service Commission.

The Act was enacted in September this year.

The court ruled that the provision of the Police Act was in conflict with paragraph 30 Part 1 of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution “which empowers the commission to appoint persons into offices in the Nigeria Police Force except the Office of the Inspector-General of Police.”

The Court of Appeal judgment also nullified the recruitment of 10,000 constables carried out by the police authorities in 2019.‎

However, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has appealed the Court of Appeal ruling.

Spokesman of the Police Service Commission, Ikechukwu Ani, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.‎

Parts of the statement titled ‘Appeal Court declares Police Act 2020 as it affects PSC mandate null and void’, said, “Justice Emmanuel Agim, one of the three Justices of the court in his concurrent judgment, ruled that Paragraph 30 of Part 1 of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution has given the power to the commission to appoint persons into offices in the Nigeria Police and did not exclude constables and cadets to Nigeria Police Academy from offices in the Nigeria Police into which the appellant can appoint persons.”

The statement explained that the judge further declared that “no Act of the National Assembly or law can take away or curtail such power.”

The judge further noted that even if the Nigeria Police carried out the disputed enlistment pursuant to a directive from President Muhammadu Buhari “the enlistment would remain contrary to the constitution and therefore, unconstitutional and void. Such a directive cannot repair its unconstitutionality and illegality”. ‎‎