More Trouble For IGP As Appeal Court Retains PSC’s Mandate To Recruit

The Court of Appeal has declared the Police Act 2020, enacted in September 2020 as it affects the mandate of the Police Service Commission (PSC) has faulty

Naija News Understands that the details of the Appeal Court judgment in the appeal instituted by the Commission against the ruling of the Federal High Court in Abuja, was contained in the Certified True Copy (CTC) received by the Commission in Abuja.

In the judgment, Justice Emmanuel Akomaye 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”.

He further declared that no Act of the National Assembly or Law can take away or curtail such power.

Justice Agim noted that even if the Nigeria Police carried out the disputed enlistment pursuant to a directive or approval of the President of the Federation, “the enlistment would remain contrary to the Constitution and therefore unconstitutional and void. Such a directive cannot repair its unconstitutionality and illegality.”