The National Industrial Court sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital has faulted the law which allows unmarried female police officers getting pregnant while in service but does not apply to unmarried male police officers impregnating females while they are in service.
The court said the provision of section 127 of the Police Act and Regulation 127 is discriminatory against female police officers.
In a judgment delivered on Wednesday, Justice Dashe Damulak struck out the regulation for being inconsistent with Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Article 2 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights which abolishes discrimination on basis of gender.
The judge also held that the claimant, Omolola Olajide has a right to challenge the constitutionality of section 127 of the Police Act and Regulation 127 thereof.
Olajide who was a police officer at the Ekiti Police Command was dismissed on January 26, 2021 by the former Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, for getting pregnant while being single.
She proceeded to court to challenge her dismissal on the ground that the police authorities had discriminated against her since her male counterparts are not dismissed in similar circumstances.
In the suit filed on her behalf by Falana & Falana & handled by the Chairperson of the Women Enlightenment and Legal Aid, Funmi Falana, Olajide listed the Nigerian Police Force, the Inspector General of Police and the Police Service Commission as defendants.
But in a 14 page judgment delivered on Wednesday, the Court accordingly, finds as inconsistent the provision of the Police Act and Regulation and Section 1(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.
The court however refused Miss Olajide’s application to be reinstated as a police officer for her wrongful dismissal after police counsel, Tolu Abisagbo argued that Olajide was employed on probation as at the time of her dismissal and she could therefore not be reinstated.
Justice Damulak however awarded the sum of N5,000,000.00 (five million naira only) to Olajide for being wrongfully denied a lifetime opportunity of serving in the Nigerian Police based on a discriminatory law.
Counsel to the claimant, Mrs Falana has commended Justice Damulak for his contribution to the development of the nation’s human rights jurisprudence on gender equality in the country.
She however expressed the view that the Court ought to have reinstated the police woman having quashed the illegal regulation upon which her dismissal was predicated.
The firm says it will appeal that aspect of the judgment.
