The Nigeria Police Force, NPF, has withdrawn the suit it filed to stop various panels of enquiry that are probing allegations of impunity and rights abuses by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS.
The police had submitted that the thirty-six state governors have no rights to set up panels of inquiry.
The suit earned the police backlash across Nigeria on Thursday, December 3.
By nightfall, police Inspector General Mohammed Adamu denied he had been briefed about the suit and announced that the Force Legal Officer has been queried and “may face further sanctions if found guilty of dereliction of duty.”
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has now applied to withdraw the suit which was marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1492/2020 and filed on November 9, 2020 by the NPF, through its lawyer, O. M. Atoyebi (SAN).
In the notice of discontinuance filed early on Friday by a lawyer to the NPF, Festus Ibude, reads: “Take notice that the plaintiff herein intends to and doth hereby wholly withdraws its suit against all the defendants.”
Listed as defendants in the case include the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the attorneys-general of the states, and chairmen of the panels set up by the states.
