POLICEWOMEN in Nigeria no longer need to abide by a statuary rule of the Nigeria Police that previously forbade them from marrying spouses of their choice without the approval of the police commissioner of their respective command.
In a ruling by a Federal High Court in Ikeja, Lagos, on Tuesday, Justice Stephen Adah declared as illegal and unconstitutional the Police Act from which the rule formally known as Regulation 124 derived, saying that it contradicted Section 42 of the Federal Constitution.
The police regulation had stated that “A woman police officer who is desirous of marrying must first apply in writing to the Commissioner of Police for the State Command in which she is serving, requesting permission to marry and giving name, address and occupation of the person she intends to marry. Permission will be granted for the marriage if the intended husband is of good character and the woman police officer has served in the force for a period of not less than three years.”
Justice Adah thereafter annulled the ruling with regards Section 3 of the Constitution.
The case was brought before the court by a women’s group, Women Empowerment and Legal Aid Initiative, or WELA, questioning the validity of the law.
Mr. B.R. Ashiru, counsel to attorney-general and minister of justice, Mr. Bello Adoke, SAN, argued that the police regulation was enacted to protect the female members of the police from criminals. The three year period during which policemen may not marry, he said, was to make sure that women are not pregnant during the training period that follows recruitment.
Ms. Funmi Falana, the executive director of WELA who is also the counsel to the group, argued that it was illegal to ban a policewoman for three years before entering into a marriage and that seeking permission of a police commissioner was an infraction of her fundamental right to dignity and freedom of choice.
She further contended that since a male police officer is not subjected to the same inhibitions Regulation 124 was 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.
Mrs Falana urged the court to expunge the Regulation from the Police Act as it was not reasonably justifiable in a democratic state like Nigeria which has domesticated the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).