President Muhammadu Buhari and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami who responded to a lawsuit filed at a Federal High Court in Abuja by an Abuja-based lawyer, Maxwell Opara over the tenure extension granted to the Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Adamu, have argued that the law allows the current IGP to stay in office till 2024.
The President and the AGF in their counter affidavit, argued that Okpara “has failed to discharge the legal burden of proof that the 2nd defendant is not a serving police officer for the purposes of extension of his tenure in office.”
This is however coming after Justice Ahmed Mohammed ruled that the Nigeria Police Council was not properly served with the originating processes.
The Judge made the ruling on Tuesday March 16, after observing that there was no legal representation for the NPC. He noted that the service of the documents was done on one Adeyemi, whose status was not stated, on the originating processes, thus making the service improper.
Daily Trust reported that though Okpara’s lawyer, Ugochukwu Ezekiel said the counsel to Buhari and Malami served him in the morning with a counter affidavit challenging the court’s jurisdiction to hear the matter, the court said service was fundamental to the proceeding.
The lawsuit was adjourned till March 30 for hearing.