Court Sets Aside IGP’s Conviction For Contempt

Justice Bolaji Olajuwon of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday vacated its November 29, 2022 order committing the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba to prison for contempt.

Justice Olajuwon lifted the order after holding in a ruling that there was evidence before her court that the IGP has substantially complied with the court’s earlier order directing the reinstatement of Patrick Okoli, who was compulsorily retired as a police office.

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The judge also held that in view of the development, the application by the IGP, seeking the vacation of the committal order, “is worthy of sympathetic consideration.”

The court stated, “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.”

Justice Olajuwon had in a ruling delivered on November 29, 2022 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 (CSP) by the Police Council (now Police Service Commission (PSC), which claimed to have acted under Decree 17 of 1984, a decision the court voided in the October 2011 judgment.