The Appeal Court has declared that the police Act 2020 is illegal, null, and void. The Police Act 2020 was a revised version of the police service Act enacted last September reviewing the constitutional mandate of the Police Service Commission. The Appealed Court posited that the provision of the act has gone against the paragraph 30 Part 1 of the third schedule of the 1999 Constitution as amended “which empowers the Commission to appoint persons into offices in the Nigerian police Force except for the office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP).
The same judgment has also nullified the recruitment of the 10,000 constables undertaken by the police authority last year.
Earlier, the IGP, Mohammed Adamu, has appealed the ruling which nullified the earlier order of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
According to, Ikechukwu Ani, the Police Service Commission (PSC) spokesperson that the detail of the Court Judgement was contained in the copy they received on Tuesday from the court.
The statement was titled, ‘Appeal Court declared Police Act 2020 as it affects PSC mandate null and void’.
The statement further reiterated that “no act of the National Assembly can upturn the law or curtail such powers.”
It further explained that, even if the Nigerian Police went ahead with the disputed enlistment in compliance with the Presidential directive, it does not validate it, and therefore shall remain unconstitutional, null and void as the presidential directive cannot ratify its illegality.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors, Forum has kicked against the recent Act 2020 of the police signed by President Buhari, saying it has breached some section of the constitution.
The statement was contained in a communiqué issued after a virtual meeting held by the PDP governors.
The communiqué signed by the Chairman of the Governors Forum, Aminu Tambuwal, and was made available to pressmen in Abuja on Wednesday.
The Governors among other things they kicked was urging the National Assembly to expunged the Section 4(1) of the Nigerian Police Trust Fund (Establishment) Act, 2019 which allegedly authorizes the President to deduct 0.5% of the total revenue accruing to the Federation Account for the benefit of the Nigerian Police Trust Fund.
They revealed the deduction was unconstitutional and should be stopped.
The communiqué partly read; “While acknowledging the many important innovations in the new law, the forum emphasized the need to make the Nigeria Police Council, which has Mr. President as Chairman and 36 state governors as members, fully operational and the clearinghouse on all issues bordering on the organization and administration of the Nigeria Police Force as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.”
