The Ekiti State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Olawale Fapohunda, has instituted a civil suit against the Inspector General of Police, seeking an order of court declaring Section 127 of the Police Act and Regulations which provides for the discharge from the Police Force, women police officers who become pregnant while unmarried, unconstitutional.
Joined as co-Defendants in the suit, are the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police and the Police Service Commission.
Fapohunda in the suit ( FHC/ AD/ CS/ 8/ 2021) filed at the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti, is asking the court to determine amongst others, whether the provisions of Section 127 of Police Act and Regulations are not in violation of the combined provisions of Sections 37 and 42 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), and Articles 2,3, 5, 18(3) and 19 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, and therefore, unconstitutional, null and void.
The suit also seeks an order nullifying Section 127 of Police Act and Regulations, as well as an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Inspector General of Police, the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police and the Police Service Commission, from implementing the regulation.
It would be recalled that recently, the Nigeria Police purportedly acting under Section 127 of the Police Act and Regulations, dismissed an unmarried Policewoman, an indigene of Ekiti State, from the services of the Nigeria Police Force on the ground of getting pregnant before marriage.
Section 127 of the Police Act and Regulations provides that “an unmarried woman police ma officer who becomes pregnant shall be discharged from the Force, and shall not be re-enlisted except with the approval of the Inspector-General”.
