President Muhammadu Buhari has
asked the attorney-general of the federation, Abubakar Malami, for a legal
opinion on the possible extension of the inspector-general of police’s tenure,
a senior presidency official has said.
Ibrahim Idris, appointed IGP by
Buhari in March 2016, clocked 35 years in service on January 3, 2019 and should
ordinarily have retired.
However, he has continued to
report to office, further fuelling speculation that Buhari is planning to
extend his tenure so that he could remain in office till after the elections.
Opposition parties have often
accused Idris of partisanship and are opposed to tenure extension for him.
“The president has asked Malami
for a legal opinion on the tenure extension. He does not want to take any
decision that will be upturned by the courts,” the official said.
We could not confirm if
Malami has written the legal advice but he is not known to go against the wish
of the president.
There is yet no IGP that has
enjoyed tenure extension and Idris would be the first if Malami sends in a
favourable opinion.
According to section 215 (1) of
the 1999 constitution, “There shall be – (a) an Inspector-General of Police
who, subject to section 216(2) of this Constitution shall be appointed by the
President on the advice of the Nigeria Police Council from among serving
members of the Nigeria Police Force.”
However, it has been argued that
technically, Idris is no longer a serving policeman since he has already
attained the length of service for mandatory retirement by over week.
There are also questions as to
why the president has not sought the input of the Nigeria Police Council over
the tenure issue.
The council is made up of the
president as chairman, 36 state governors, chairman of the Police Service
Commission and the inspector-general of police.
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