Pregnant Cop: Ekiti state government drags IGP to court

The Ekiti State government has dragged the Inspector General of Police to court over the sack of a pregnant police constable, Miss Omolola Olajide.

The Ekiti state government in a suit filed by the state Attorney-General, Mr Olawale Fapohunda, joined the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police and the Police Service Commission as co-defendants.

Miss Olajide’s dismissal was announced on January 28, 2021 by the Ekiti state commissioner of police Mr Tunde Mobayo.

Mr Mobayo, had while announcing Olajide’ sack, said the constable who joined the service in May 2020, was dismissed by the police for getting pregnant less than a year after graduating from the police academy.

He said this violates Section 127 of the police regulation which states that an unmarried woman police, who becomes pregnant, shall be discharged from the Force and shall not be enlisted except with the approval of the IGP.

A statement on Sunday from the Special Assistant to the Attorney General and commissioner of Justice on Media, Olalekan Suleman, said the attorney General reviewed the said Police Regulations and found several provisions in violation of sections 37 and 42 of the Constitution the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) as well as several regional and international treaties to which Nigeria is a party including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights”.

The statement said Fapohunda has also written to the IGP offering the support of Ekiti State Ministry of Justice in conducting a gender audit of the Police Act and Regulations.

Fapohunda said the Ekiti State Government remains committed to the eradication of all forms of discrimination against women in public and private life and as such had enacted several laws and enabled policies aimed at protecting the rights of women in Ekiti State.