The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has filed a lawsuit against the Nigeria Police Force for unfairly refusing to promote lawyers in the police to the specialist cadre, as required by law.
The case, filed on September 3, 2025, at the National Industrial Court in Abuja (Suit No: NICN/ABJ/264/2025), targets the Police Service Commission and five others.
The NBA is demanding that police officers who are qualified lawyers be moved from general duties to the specialist cadre and promoted to the rank of Superintendent of Police, as stated in Section 18 (9) and (11) of the Nigeria Police Force (Establishment) Act 2020 and Force Order 137 of 2013.
These laws require that officers who are lawyers, either when they join the police or after becoming lawyers with police approval, should automatically be placed in the specialist cadre for legal work.
However, many of these officers remain stuck in junior ranks like Inspector, Sergeant, or Corporal, even while handling legal cases in courts for the police.
The NBA pointed out that professionals in other fields, such as doctors and engineers, are quickly moved to specialist roles, but lawyers face discrimination for reasons that are unclear.
This has forced police lawyers to perform legal duties while holding junior ranks and doing general tasks, which the NBA calls an insult to the legal profession and a breach of professional rules.
Despite years of trying to resolve the issue peacefully, the NBA has seen no change. The lawsuit asks the court to order the police to immediately promote all qualified lawyers in the force to Superintendent of Police and stop using them for non-legal duties.
The NBA’s Police Lawyers Forum, which supports lawyers in the police, is leading this fight. The association hopes the court will end this unfair treatment and restore dignity to its members in the Nigeria Police Force.
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