5M Damages Given To Unmarried Female Policewoman Who Was Sacked For Getting Pregnant
There is good news
for Olajide Omolola, the unmarried female corporal attached to the Ekiti State
Police command who was sacked because she got pregnant outside wedlock. The good news is she has been awarded 5M in
Damages by the National Industrial Court sitting in Akure.
On Wednesday, January
11, Justice D.K Damulak who delivered the landmark judgment at the Akure Judicial
division of the National Industrial Court struck down regulation 127 of the
Nigerian Police regulation made according to the
Police Establishment Act 2020 which provides for the sack of an unmarried woman
police officer who gets pregnant.
According
to Damulak, the police regulation which permits the dismissal of Unmarried pregnant
policewomen is “discriminatory, illegal, null, and void”.
The judge, however, noted that the police
regulation cannot stand as it applies to unmarried
policemen who impregnate women, and added that it violates section 42 of
the Constitution and article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples
Rights Ratification and Enforcement Act which abolished discrimination on basis
of gender.
The judge said;
“The Court finds and
holds that the provision of Section 127 of the Police Act and Regulation 127
thereof, which applies to unmarried women police officers getting pregnant while
in service but does not apply to unmarried male police officers impregnating
females while they are in service, are discriminatory against unmarried women
police offices by Section 1(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria, as amended if any law is inconsistent with the provision of this
Constitution, this Constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall to the
extent of its inconsistency be void.
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“For the avoidance of
doubt, the case of the Claimant succeeds in part only in terms of prayer B
which is A Declaration that the provisions of Regulation 127 and section 127 of
the Police Act which is against women police officers getting pregnant before
marriage but does not apply to male police officers impregnating women before
marriage is discriminatory, illegal and unconstitutional as it violates the
Claimant’s Fundamental Right under Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution (as
amended) and Article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and
the said provision is hereby declared null and void and struck down.”
Justice Damulak further awarded aggravated
damages of N5 million for the violation of Omolola’s fundamental right to
freedom from discrimination.
Omolola's prayer for reinstatement as a
police officer was however refused by the court. The judge upheld the
submission of the police counsel, Mr. P.S Abisagbo, to the effect that she
could not be reinstated as she was on probation at the time of her dismissal
from the Nigeria Police Force.
Part of the Judicial authorities the judge
relied on was a case of Women Enlightenment and Legal aid Vs Attorney-General
of the Federation, where the Federal High Court struck down the police
regulation that placed a three-year ban on female recruits from contracting any
form of marriage.
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