Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Aishatu Abubakar-Baju, has disclosed that discriminatory police laws mandating the dismissal of unmarried policewomen who become pregnant while in service have been abolished.
She made this known during her appearance on a Channels TV programme aired on March 12.
Abubakar-Baju emphasized that sections of the Police Act that contained gender discrimination have been expunged, aligning with the ongoing police reforms and the Nigeria Police gender policy launched by the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun.
“That Section 127 and any section of the Police Act and regulation that has gender discrimination have been expunged; looking at the Police Act of 2020 and the police reform that is currently going on.
“The inspector general of police has just last year, launched the Nigeria Police gender policy just to make sure that there is complete eradication of any form of gender discrimination”.
“I can tell you that the Nigeria Police has come of age, and the inspector general of police is intentional about inclusivity and making sure that the Nigeria Police is an equal opportunity institution,” she added.
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Abubakar-Baju referred to the 2021 dismissal of Omolola Olajide, an unmarried corporal in Ekiti State, which had sparked significant public outrage.
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) challenged the legality of the relevant police regulations in court, but their initial suit was dismissed for lack of merit.
Subsequently, the NBA took the case to the Court of Appeal, which, in May 2024, ultimately voided the sections of the Nigeria Police Act that allowed for such dismissals.
