The Nigeria Police Force has filed a suit at a Federal High Court in Abuja seeking an order to stop the judicial panels of inquiry set up by states over allegations of police brutality and human rights violations.
Dateline Nigeria reports that state governments, on the directive of the National Economic Council (NEC) have set up the panels as part of commitment to the EndSARS protests that rocked parts of the country for days.
Some states such as Kano are however yet to set up the commissions, while Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum has vowed not to establish the panel in protest saying similar attention was not paid to the insurgency in his state.
In a suit marked FHC/ ABJ/CS/1492/2020 and filed by O.M Atoyebi, NPF’s lawyer, the police said argued that the establishment of panels of inquiry violates “section 241(1)(2)(a) and item 45, part 1, first schedule to the constitution and section 21 of the tribunals of inquiry act”.
Defendants are the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the attorneys-general of the states, and chairmen of the panels.
The case, which earlier was listed for December 3, was rescheduled for December 18 as the court in Abuja did not sit.
