DIG Osayande faults approval of hijab for female police officers

A retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Mr Parry Osayande, on Wednesday faulted the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Bala’s approval of hijab for female police officers.

Osayande, the immediate past chairman of the Police Service Commission, described the newly approved dress code for female police personnel as unconstitutional.

The Inspector-General of Police, Baba, it would be recalled had last approved the new dress code, allowing hijab for female officers in the nation’s police force.

The new dress code also allows female officers to wear stud earrings under their berets or peak caps while in uniform.

Speaking in Benin City, Osayande described the newly approved uniform code for female police officers in the country as illegal and unconstitutional.

He said, “Though the 1999 constitution was superimposed on Nigerians, the same does not give the IGP the constitutional rights to wake-up one morning and say that Baba has approved the use of hijab, which is a Muslim mode of dressing for the Nigerian Police,   this is not Benin Police,  Yoruba police or Muslim police,but the Nigerian Police. 

“The constitution of Nigeria is the highest law of the land, and the constitution says that if any other law is in variance with the constitution, that law will be null and void. 

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“There is a part of the constitution that established Nigerian Police Council, which has the president of Nigeria as the chairman, it has the chairman of the Police Service Commission as a member and the 36 states governors are also members. They are the only ones that have the constitutional right to approve the dressing code for the Nigerian Police,” the retired police top shot averred.

The retired DIG submitted that by the new dress code, the plan of the government is to Islamise Nigeria, and warned that such a move is not only dangerous, but also a breach of the constitution. 

“The use of hijab is a breach of the constitution of the country and if you are a governor and breached the constitution of the land, it is impeachment. If you are a president it is impeachment. If the Attorney General does not know his right, somebody has to teach him. The IGP has no power to alter a button on police uniform,” Osayande emphasised.

He lamented that the police “is underpaid, underfunded” and needed attention from the government.

“Nigeria has about 774 local government areas and we don’t have up to 800 vehicles for the police to cover the local governments. How do you expect them to do well?” he queried.