THE Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has applied for the withdrawal of a suit it earlier filed to the Federal High Court, Abuja seeking to stop various state panels probing allegations of misconducts and extra-judicial killings by operatives of the force.
The application for withdrawal of the suit on Friday followed public outcries on social media by Nigerian youths who said the government has reneged on its promise on fulfilling the demands of the ENDSARS protesters.
Muhammad Adamu, the Inspector General of Police had on Thursday denied knowledge of the suit adding that investigation would be opened in the suit.
Adamu in a statement “expressed the disapproval of the Force Management Team on the matter and ordered investigations into the alleged role of the Force Legal Section including its Head”.
In the original suit filed by Nigeria police through its counsel, O. M. Atoyebi, the force challenged the constitutionality and legality of state governments to set up judicial panels to investigate the activities of a federal establishment.
Atoyebi prayed the court in the suit to restrain the Attorneys-General of the 36 states in the country and their various panels of enquiry from continuing with the probe into alleged police misconduct.
The NPF charged the court to also declare the actions of the governors of the states over the panel as unconstitutional, illegal, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.
Furthermore, Atoyebi sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining the state Attorneys-General of the 36 states from making or conducting any investigations, sittings, and inquiries in connection with the Nigeria Police force or its officials.
The decision to constitute the state judicial panels was made after the Federal government during the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting held on Thursday, October 16 made the resolution.
Nigerians across many states are protesting extra-judicial killings and various illegality perpetrated by operatives of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and the police force in general.
So far, over 1200 petitions have been submitted to state panels stating different horrific encounters with men of the Nigerian Police force.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94