Omolola Olajide, an unmarried police corporal attached to Iye-Ekiti station, Ekiti State Police Command was sacked on January 26, 2021, for getting pregnant. The nation was enraged as the same policy is not applicable to male police officers.
Mr. Babatunde Mobayo, the state commissioner of police, had said Olajide’s sacking was right, saying the officer violated section 127 of the police regulations. The controversial section provides that "an unmarried woman police officer, who becomes pregnant, shall be discharged from the Force and shall not be re-enlisted except with the approval of the Inspector General of Police."
In a public interest litigation case filed at the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court the Nigerian Bar Association challenged the Constitutionality of Regulation 127 and the dismissal of Omolola Olajide from the Nigeria Police Force for forgetting pregnant while she was unmarried. In a judgment delivered on February 2, 2022, the judge ruled that having willingly enlisted into the police, and being aware of the regulations, it was wrong for an unmarried female police officer to now flout the same regulations.
In dismissing the case, the judge said that "I find that the regulation in issue, in this case, is about conduct and nothing more. I find no compelling reason for this court to disrupt the discipline of the force or interfere in the regulation of the conduct of officers of the Nigeria Police Force whether male or female." The judge further said that "the essence of this suit is to use the provision of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to lower the moral and professional standard of the NPF and this court will not give its imprimatur to such venture."
Mr. Olawale Fapohunda, SAN, the Ekiti state attorney-general and commissioner for justice, instituted a lawsuit before the Ado Judicial Division of the federal high court seeking an order of the court nullifying section 127 of the Police Act. But the court dismissed the suit on the grounds that it is an abuse of the court process since a similar suit filed by Olajide is pending before the national industrial court.
However, judgment was delivered by the National Industrial Court yesterday in the case filed on behalf of Omolola Olajide by Mrs Funmi Falana of Falana and Falana's Chambers. Delivering judgment in the suit marked NICN/AK/14/2021, Dashe Damulak, the presiding judge in the court’s Akure division, held that the particular section of the police regulation is “discriminatory, illegal, null and void”.
The court upheld the submissions of Mrs Funmi Falana and held that the regulation “violates section 42 of the (Nigerian) constitution and article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights Ratification and Enforcement Act which abolished discrimination on basis of gender.”
“The court finds and holds that the provision of section 127 of the Police Act and Regulation 127 thereof, which applies to unmarried women police officers getting pregnant while in service but does not apply to unmarried male police officers impregnating females while they are in service, is discriminatory against unmarried women police officers by section 1(3) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended,” the judge said.
“If any law is inconsistent with the provision of this constitution, this constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall to the extent of its inconsistency be void.”
Although the court nullified the “discriminatory” regulation, the judge said Olajide cannot be reinstated into the police force as prayed by Mrs Falana. The judge held that the claimant’s dismissal could not be reversed as she was on probation at the time of her sack from the force.
While congratulating Omolola Olajide for fighting for all unmarried policewomen in the Nigeria Police Force, her lawyer, Mrs Funmi Falana deserves special commendation for her dogged fight for gender equality in the country. In 2012, the Federal High Court upheld her submissions and annulled Police Regulation 124 which banned a policewoman from getting married until 3 years after recruitment and approval of the prospective suitor by the Commissioner of Police.
No doubt, Justice Dashe Damulak of the National Industrial Court appreciated the legal issues involved in the case, unlike Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court. However, having rightly annulled the discriminatory section 127 of the Nigeria Police Force Regulation, Justice Damulak ought to have ordered the reinstatement of Omolola Olajide on probation in the police force.
It is hoped that the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Alkali Baba will expunge the discriminatory provision from the Nigeria Police Force Regulations and proceed to reinstate Omolola Olajide into the Nigeria Police Force.