By Adesina Soyooye
Unmarried Nigerian Police Women on Wednesday, 11th January, 2023, had cause to celebrate. They have been released from bondage. They, finally, have their freedom to get pregnant out of wedlock, and have their babies.
“Finally, the inexplicable discrimination between us and our male counterparts has been thrown into the dustbin where it rightly belongs”, said a married female Police Officer.
She added: “I almost lost my husband over that. We dated for three years, and for those three years, because of the crude Police Regulation, and to the anger of his mother, I didn’t get pregnant. She even refused to understand why we could not get legally married, and asked her son to look elsewhere. She said I was playing a double game.”
Known in the Police as “Regulation 127 of the Nigeria Police Regulation made pursuant to the Police Establishment Act 2020”, it forbade unmarried Police Women from getting pregnant, a discriminatory situation not extended to their male counterparts. Any such Police Woman was summarily dismissed from the Nigerian Police Force.
But on Wednesday, the Honourable Justice D. K. Damulak of the Nigerian Industrial Court, held that such action was not only discriminatory but illegal.
The case which gave the Police Women their freedom was sparked off by the dismissal of Miss Omolala Olajide on 26th January, 2021 under the leadership of former Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu.
Miss Olajide, who was serving at the Ekiti State Police Command, fell foul of the Police rule when she got pregnant outside marriage, less than one year after enlistment into the Nigerian Police Force. She was, actually, still on probation.
In dismissing then Constable Olajide from the NPF, the then Commissioner of Police, Ekiti State Command, Babatunde Mobayo, told Journalists that she violated Section 127 of Police Act and Regulations.
But Miss Olajide went to Court to challenge her dismissal from the NPF. She told the Court that her dismissal was discriminatory since her male counterparts do not get dismissed or punished in anyway under similar circumstances.
Hon Justice Damulak, in the judgment delivered at the Akure Judicial Division of the National Industrial Court agreed with the dismissed Constable. He held that: “The Police regulation which permits the dismissal of unmarried pregnant police women is discriminatory, illegal, null and void as it violates section 42 of the 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 Police Regulation, the Judge said, “cannot stand as it is not applicable to unmarried policemen who impregnate women.” He, therefore, set it aside.
Damulak: “The Court accordingly, 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, are discriminatory against unmarried women Police Officers by Section 1(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended. 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.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the case of the Claimant succeeds in part only in terms of prayer B which is A Declaration that the provisions of Regulation 127 and section 127 of the Police Act which is against women Police Officers getting pregnant before marriage but does not apply to male Police Officers impregnating women before marriage is discriminatory, illegal and unconstitutional as it violates the Claimant’s Fundamental Right under Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the said provision is hereby declared null and void and struck down.”
Justice Damulak awarded N5 million in “aggravated damages to Miss Olajide for the violation of her fundamental right to freedom, from discrimination.”
But the Honourable Justice rejected her prayer for reinstatement as a Police officer. He upheld the submission of the Police Counsel, Mr. P. S. Abisagbo, that she could not be reinstated as she was on probation at the time of her dismissal from the Nigeria Police Force.
Damulak who relied on many judicial authorities and, especially, the case of Women Enlightenment and Legal Aid v Attorney-General of the Federation where the Federal High Court struck down the police regulation that placed a three-year ban on female recruits from getting married.
Mrs Funmi Falana of the Falana & Falana’s Chambers who handled the case of the three-year ban before marriage, was full of praises for Justice Damulak but noted that the Court should have reinstated Olajide, having declared the Police Regulation under which she was dismissed as discriminatory and illegal.
