The recent news was that the committal of the Inspector General of Police (Usman Baba) for contempt of court. I learnt that he had applied to set the order aside but under normal circumstances and concomitantly, he should be behind the bar while he was perfecting his application to set aside the order. What are the police functions and how did the IGP found himself in this quagmire? The police duty as part of the executive is to implement the law of the land under the doctrine of separation of power. Their power is derived from the constitution. Some of the functions of the Nigerian Police are; protection of lives and property; prevention of crime; arrest and prosecution of offenders; enforcement of the laws and court order.
The Federal High Court in Abuja under Justice M.O. Olajuwon on 29.11.2022 found against the IGP of disobeying the court order made on 21.10.2011 and therefore sentenced him to a three-month custodial sentence. The sentence was unprecedented in the history of Nigeria and had generated a lot of comments in both mainstream media and social media.
It is the inherent power of the court (judiciary) to supervise the acts of the executive in the interpretation of law and pronouncement of judgment, where the action of the executive is unconstitutional and or unlawful. Contempt of court is defined as any act of disrespect disobedience, or interference by any of the parties involved in a legal proceedings. It is also an offence of strict liability in English law. Chief Gani Fawehinmi stated in the preface of his book titled: Law of Contempt in Nigeria ‘that “Of all the areas of Nigerian laws, one which has created difficulty for lawyers, judges/litigants is that of contempt.” It is an area where the judges all over the world try to avoid as much as they can. About 5 years ago we did a case in London, our client was sued for contempt of court for failing to obey the court order. In parenthesis, there was a breach and so we all panicked about the likely outcome, this was a client that was very close to us. However, my partner at OA solicitors, Femi Olujinmi, insisted that we should look beyond the breach, there must be wilful disobedience or a flagrant disobedience to the order of the court before our client could be found guilty. True to his word, the judge was reluctant to find our client guilty of breach of court order and so he gave him another opportunity to comply since our client has shown that he did not wilfully breach the Order of the court and so we won the case on technical ground.
We should all therefore laud the courage of Justice Olajuwon for having the audacity to deal with the matter and found the IGP guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him to three months custodian sentence.
In practice, warnings may have sufficed, warnings of being at the brink of contempt of court are sometimes a means to publicly force an individual or organisation to properly comply with an instruction.
However, in the present case, the court has issued many warnings and given the IGP ample opportunities to remedy the matter but the IGP believes he is above the law and since it has never happened before that an IGP is sentenced to jail, it is unprecedented. The precedence has now been set and, as at the time of writing this piece, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) has been sentenced also for contempt of court as well. The heads of the two topmost security bodies of the country have no respect for the rules of law and have no respect for the constitution of Nigeria that even created their positions in the first instance. It clearly shows the lowest level that this country has degenerated into. Those who should uphold the rule of law are the breakers of those laws. They forgot that the law/constitution is the bedrock of modern society.
The court that sentenced the IGP still did its best by providing an escape route to the extent that the order may sound just like warning because the three months custodial sentence will only be effective until the IGP complied with the previous judgment that premeditated the contempt of court proceedings. Thus, once that judgment is complied with, the order to sentence is fully discharged and no longer binding.
The big mess in the current imbroglio of this order is how to effect the Order. Who will arrest the whole Inspector General of Police and lock him up in prison? He is the senior police officer in the land and the same thing with Chief of Army Staff. The Inspector General who can “on paper carry out the order of the court regarding detaining the COAS is in soup already and notwithstanding the fact that the police force in Nigeria is always afraid of the military who see them as an inferior people. In the Western world, the officers would have resigned immediately because it is also a dereliction of duties apart from the criminal act, that is in a sane society.
Under these circumstances, the above quoted Latin maxim ‘Quis custodiet Ipsos custodie’ is apt for our current situation in Nigeria. Who will guard the Guardians? Who will supervise the supervisor? Who watches the watchers or who will watch the watchmen?
As a lawyer in the UK, it is a must to continue professional training and in one of the training that I attended ‘Time Management Training,’ it was meant for two hours and our teacher dragged it to three and half hours and by that time I have lost interest. When he finished I went to talk to him and I told him bluntly that he is not competent to teach ‘Time Management’ considering the time he overspent. He was a white man and we are all lawyers. He had no answer to my allegation and kept silent; I just left him there ruminating over the matter. If the IGP cannot obey the law of the land, he is not competent to enforce any law at all. It is a disgrace to the country and monumental failure of Nigeria Police Force.
For the system to work well , all those who are holding key positions must show by example, they must fully obey the law of the land. Those who will lead other must first lead themselves. Law cannot enforce itself, it is the people, the custodian of the law that must first uphold the rules of law. The order of courts must be obeyed by all and sundry. If the IGP still failed to carry out the initial order of the court, there is no reason he should not be put behind the bar and the next person in rank to him take over. The president has a duty that the order of the court is fully carried out.
- Niyi Aborisade is a lawyer and Human Rights Activist.
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