Contempt: Court Sets Aside Order Committing IGP To Prison

Justice Bolaji Olajuwon of a Federal High Court in Abuja, has set aside the November 29, 2022 order that committed the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, to prison for contempt.

The court in a ruling on Wednesday held that there was no evidence before it that the IGP had substantially complied with the Court’s earlier order directing the reinstatement of a Poice officer, Patrick Okoli, who was compulsorily retired.

However, Justice Olajuwon held that in view of the development, the application by the IGP, seeking the8 vacation of the committal order was worthy of sympathetic consideration.

Olajuwon said, “In view of the substantial compliance with the order of the court and the assurance of ensuring full compliance, the order commuting the applicant, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, is hereby set aside.”

The judge had in the November 29 ruling convicted the IGP and sentenced him to a three-month jail term for failing to obey the October 21, 2011 judgment of the Federal High Court reinstating Okoli.

Okoli was compulsorily retired in 1992 while serving in the Bauchi State Command as a Chief Superintendent of Police by the Police Council (now Police Service Commission, which claimed to have acted under Decree 17 of 1984, a decision the court voided in the October 2011 judgment.