Human rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has described as unsustainable and unconstitutional the ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja, validating a regulation of the Nigeria Police Force that prohibits single female police operatives from getting pregnant whilst unmarried.
The group, in a statement, by its national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the decision of the court was sequel to an action filed by Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) querying the legality of the provision which, it argued, was not only in conflict with the 1999 constitution (as amended), but also amounted to discrimination against an unmarried female police officer.
Citing the case of Omolola Olajide, a female police officer that was sacked in Ekiti State on January 26, 2021, for being pregnant while unmarried, the NBA maintained that such discriminatory Regulation has also rendered many female officers childless for fear of being sacked.
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The NBA said : “The male police officers and married female police officers in the Nigeria Police Force are not subjected to similar discrimination, sanction, opprobrium, and indignity.
The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), Police Service Commission, and the Nigeria Police Force were listed as defendants in the suit.
Delivering his judgement, Justice Ekwo upheld the submissions of the AGF.
According to him, the suit lacked merit, stressing that such unmarried female police officers were aware of the regulation before they joined the force.
He said: “Where a law or regulation of an establishment identifies gender attributes or faults and seeks to regulate the vulnerabilities capable of negatively affecting the progress of such gender, such law or regulation is a warning aforehand and cannot be said to be discriminatory.
” In my opinion, the essence of this suit is to use the provision of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to lower the moral and professional standard of the NPF and this court will not give its imprimatur to such venture.
“It is my finding that in all that the plaintiff has posited, it has not pointed to any aspect of the regulation complained of, which violates the interest of public order or public morality, which will make it reasonably justifiable to invalidate Regulation 127 of the NPFR and I so hold.
“I find that the regulation in issue, in this case, is about conduct and nothing more. I find no compelling reason for this court to disrupt the discipline of the force or interfere in the regulation of the conduct of officers of the NPF….”
HURIWA, therefore, urged the Nigerian Bar Association to proceed to the Court of Appeal to quash the verdict of the Federal High Court, which effectively legalised discrimination on the basis of gender and status of the female police operatives, which is offensive to Section 42(1) of the Nigerian Constitution.
