President Muhammadu Buhari and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, say the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, can remain in office as he is still a serving police officer.
In a counter affidavit to the suit filed at a Federal High Court in Abuja by an Abuja-based lawyer, Maxwell Opara, Buhari and Malami said the law permits Adamu to remain in office till 2023 or 2024.
They said Okpara “has failed to discharge the legal burden of proof that the 2nd defendant is not a serving police officer for the purposes of extension of his tenure in office.”
Meanwhile, Justice Ahmed Mohammed on Tuesday ruled that the Nigeria Police Council was not properly served with the originating processes.
The decision by the judge followed an observation that there was no legal representation for the NPC. The judge noted that the service of the documents was done on one Adeyemi, whose status was not stated, on the originating processes, thus making the service improper.
Although counsel to Okpara, Ugochukwu Ezekiel, said the counsel to Buhari and Malami served him in the morning with a counter affidavit challenging the court’s jurisdiction to hear the matter, the court said service was fundamental to the proceeding.
The suit was fixed March 30 for hearing.
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