A bill seeking to expunge
sections of the police act that are discriminatory to female officers has
passed second reading at the senate.
The bill passed after Ezenwa
Oyewuchi, senator representing Imo east and its sponsor, move a motion and led
a debate on it.
Regulations 122,123,124 and 127
which the bill is seeking to expunge restrict female officers to desk duties,
prevent them from drilling under arms, make them apply before they get married
and discipline those of them who get pregnant.
While leading the debate on
Thursday, Oyewuchi said a review of the law showed these regulations reinforce
gender discrimination.
“This bill seeks to amend the
police act (Cap P19), laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004 by expunging the
gender-discriminatory provisions of regulations 122,123,124 and 127,” the
legislator said.
“Essentially, this bill seeks to
expunge the provisions of regulations 122, 123, 124, and 127 from the principal
act
“The examination of gender issues
covers various spheres of policy and practice ranging from language,
recruitment, training and posting; to marriage, pregnancy and child bearing.
“Many of the police regulations,
particularly regulations 122, 123,124 and 127 are overly discriminatory to
female police officers.
“Since a male police officer is
not subjected to the same inhibitions, the current regulations are inconsistent
with section 42 of the constitution and article 2 of the African Charter on
Human and Peoples’ Rights which have prohibited discrimination on the basis of
sex.”
The senator said there is a need
to expunge the regulations because they are not “justifiable in a democratic
state like Nigeria which has domesticated the African Charter on Human and
Peoples Rights”.
Contributing to the debate, Smart
Adeyemi, senator representing Kogi west, said women must not be seen as second
class citizens.
“I find it difficult to
comprehend that we have these provisions in the police act. I am sure they must
be carry over of colonial masters provisions of the police,” he said.
On her part, Stella Oduah,
senator representing Anambra north, said women could be relied upon to carry
out duties efficiently.
“The fact that this bill is not
coming from the police, I am very shocked,” Oduah said.
After it was passed, Senate
President Ahmad Lawan referred the bill to the police affairs committee asking
it to report back in four weeks.
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