Court order on the arrest of Chief of Army Staff comes on the heels of another Court committing the Inspector General of Police to prison for three months.
By Emma Ogbuehi
A High Court in Minna, Niger State, has issued a warrant of arrest for the Chief of Army Staff, General Faruk Yahaya, for alleged contempt of court.
The state’s chief judge, Justice Halima Abdulmalik, who gave the order, also issued a warrant of arrest for the Commandant Training and Doctrine Command Minna, Major General Stevenson Olugbenga Olabanji.
Abdulmalik stated that the order followed the hearing of a case brought before the court, pursuant to Order 42, Rule 10 of the Niger State High Court Civil Procedure 2018.
Justice Abdulmalik declared: “The order is commuting the Chief of Army Staff, General Faruk Yahaya and the Commandant Training and Doctrine Command Minna, Major General Stevenson Olugbenga Olabanji, to be kept in Minna Correctional Custody for contentions of the order of this court on 12 October 2022.”
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She directed that the two suspects should be remanded in custody until they purge themselves of the court contempt.
The Presiding judge adjourned the case to December 8, 2022 for continuation.
The order on General Yahaya, comes two days after a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Tuesday, sentenced the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba to three months in prison for disobeying a valid court order.
The court, in a ruling that was delivered by Justice M. O. Olajuwon, held that the IGP should be committed to prison and detained in custody for a period of three months, or until he obeys an order it made since October 21, 2011.
“If at the end of the three months, the contemnor remains recalcitrant and still refuses to purge his contempt, he shall be committed for another period and until he purges his contempt”, the court held.
The IGP’s committal followed a suit that was filed by a police officer, Mr. Patrick Okoli, who was unlawfully and compulsorily retired from the Nigerian Police Force.
Justice Olajuwon noted that though the Police Service Commission, PSC, recommended Okoli’s reinstatement into the Police, a decision that was affirmed by the court, the IGP, refused to comply with the order.
The court had also ordered the payment of N10million to the Applicant, being special and general damages for the unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional denial of his rights and privileges as a Senior Officer of the Nigeria Police Force from 1993 till date.
