IGP Faces Another Jail Threat Over Contempt

A fresh contempt proceeding has been brought against the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Alkali Baba Usman.

Usman may be committed to jail over an alleged breach of a citizen’s fundamental human right.

This is due to the non-compliance of the police to the order on the violation of the rights of the Managing Director of the Nigeria-Ukraine Chamber of Friendship Culture and Commerce, Justin Maduagwu.

The counsel to Maduagwu, Malachy Nwaekpe in a notice of contempt proceedings under Form 48 on December 13 sought to compel the IGP to comply with a December 14, 2017 court order asking him to pay Maduagwu the total sum of N91,452,750.

The IGP, Usman was not in charge of the Nigeria Police Force at the time the order was made.

The judgment is the sum of N81.4m and N10m damages and cost of the applicant’s property “unlawfully and compulsorily confiscated, seized and acquired” by the police.

A Federal High Court in Abuja, in the judgement on the fundamental rights enforcement delivered on December 14, 2017, held that the detention of the applicant for seven days without charge and the seizure of his property violated sections 35 and 44 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution.

The office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, in a letter signed by the Director of the Citizens Rights Department, F.K. Kebu, and received on June 21, 2018, had advised the IGP to comply with the judgment with “a preventing a continuous increase of the judgment debt.”

Recall that a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja during the year committed the IGP to prison for contempt.

The court had on November 29, 2022, ordered the IGP to be imprisoned for three months over failure to comply with an earlier order directing the reinstatement of Patrick Okoli, who was compulsorily retired as a police officer.

The case was later withdrawn by the Federal High Court.