Mike Okiro’s N1bn Libel Suit against NOPRIN: Court Adjourns To March 21

Mike Okiro

By SaharaReporters, New York

A High Court in Ikeja has set March 21 for the mention of a libel suit filed by a former police Inspector General, Mike Okiro, against the Network of Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN).
Mr. Okiro filed the suit in response to a petition by the group to the Senate advising against his confirmation as Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC).
A report by NOPRIN in 2013 had exposed indictments on Mr. Okiro, and it called on the Senate to turn down his nomination.
In the petition, the group set out four grounds for their objection to the former IGP for the post.
Among them, NOPRIN accused Mr. Okiro of promoting extrajudicial killings in the country.  And stressing the need to keep the PSC “civilian, credible and effective,” they argued that Mr. Okiro would not able to live up to the task.
The network also accused the former police boss of cultivating partisan interests that contravened the provisions of the constitution, and concluded that he carried “clear and irremediable integrity deficits.”
The petition further underlined that the re-nomination of members who had previously served a term negates the provisions of the constitution under the PSC Act.