Law Dismissing Unmarried Pregnant Policewomen Trashed, AIG Declares Baju, Nigeria’s highest-ranking female police officer, said this while speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Wednesday.
She accentuated that laws discriminating against women in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) have been removed to advocate gender inclusivity.
When asked about the 2021 case of Omolola Olajide, an unmarried police corporal dismissed in Ekiti State for being pregnant, Baju elaborated that such dismissals no longer happen.
“That Section 127 and some section of the Police Act and regulation that has gender marginalization have been expunged, looking at the Police Act of 2020 and the police amend that is currently going on,” she revealed.
“The IGP (Inspector General of Police) has just previous year launched the Nigeria Police Gender Policy just to make sure that there is complete eradication of more or less mode of gender discrimination.
“I can inform you that the Nigeria Police has come of age, and the IG is intentional about inclusivity and making sure that the Nigeria Police is an equal opportunity institution,” she appended.
When asked specifically whether unmarried female officers can now endure in service if they become pregnant, the AIG responded, “Yes.”
Olajide’s dismissal had sparked dispersed criticism, prompting the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to oppose Section 127 of the Police Act in a Federal High Court in Abuja.
However, the court governed that police officers were aware of the regulation upon uniting the measure and rejected the case for lacking merit.
Undeterred, the NBA took the case to the Court of Appeal in Lagos. In May 2024, the appellate court struck down Sections 126 and 127 of the Nigeria Police Act, which had previously allowed the dismissal of unmarried pregnant officers.
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Published 3/12/2025