The Nigerian Bar Association has commenced legal action against President Muhammadu Buhari over the three months extension of the tenure of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu.
In the suit filed before the Federal High Court in Lagos by the NBA’s Public Interest Litigation Committee, Buhari, Adamu and the Police Service Commission are listed as respondents.
The NBA said it is guided by the urgent need and sacred duty to reassert the supremacy of the rule of law in the face of growing impunity and the seeming reluctance of Law Officers in Government.
NBA’s position is that Adamu ceased to be a member of the Nigeria Police Force when he attained the mandatory 35 years of service. It however, referred to the extension of his tenure as “unconstitutional”.
“In the grand scheme of things, the NBA is wary that the more government officials casually violate the law, the harder it would become to expect citizens to be compliant. Citizens take their cues from their leaders and public office holders who flout the laws of the country that they are meant to uphold will discover sooner or later that their examples will be followed by those that they purport to govern.
“The ubiquity of acts of impunity, especially by those in high public offices, portends an existential threat to the survival of this country and her hard-won democracy,” it said.