An Abuja-based Lawyer, Maxwell Opara has filed an ExParte Motion before the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal, seeking an abridgement of time for the hearing of his appeal against President Muhammadu Buhari, over the pending litigation on the extension of the Inspector General of Police’s tenure of office.
The appeal court had adjourned to September 19, the suit by Opara to restrain President Muhammadu Buhari from allowing the present Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali to continue in that capacity from March 1, 2023, on grounds that the court could not sit as it was busy with election petition tribunals.
In the ExParte Motion filed before the Court, the Appellant is praying for an order abridging the time to hear the appeal filed in the court.
In an 11-paragraph affidavit in support of the Motion, the Appellant/Applicant stressed that he will suffer untold damages if the matter is not decided on a closer date.
Other defendants in the suit are, the Inspector General of Police, the Attorney General of the Federation and Nigeria Police Council.
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Opara is seeking amongst other things for the IGP to recuse office, pending the hearing and determination of a motion on notice on whether a person can stay in office as IGP after he is no longer a serving Police Officer.
He insists that by March 1, 2023, the tenure of the present IGP would expire and he will cease to be a serving Police Officer after and his stay will be a continuous breach of the provisions of the 1999 constitution and the Nigeria Police Act, 2020.
Opara is praying the court to order the President to rescind the decision of extending the tenure of IGP as whatever document Usman signs after March 1, would be a nullity.
(Editor: Oloyede Oworu)
