The Nigeria Police Force has been accused of institutional contempt and brazen lawlessness following its refusal to comply with a binding judgment of the Akwa Ibom State High Court, despite failing to file any appeal against the decision several months after it was delivered.
The judgment, delivered on Monday, June 30, 2025, by Hon. Justice Eno H. Isangedighi of the High Court sitting in the Abak Judicial Division, arose from Suit No: HA/PHR/712Z, filed by Mr. Udotong Ezekiah Jimmy for the enforcement of his fundamental human rights.
The court held that the invasion of the applicant’s residence on February 9, 2023, his unlawful arrest and detention until February 10, 2023, and the forceful extraction of ₦100,000 from him by police officers constituted a flagrant and unconstitutional violation of his rights to dignity of the human person, personal liberty, private and family life, and freedom of movement.
In a strongly worded judgment, Justice Isangedighi condemned the conduct of the police, stressing that officers of the Akwa Ibom State Command acted in blatant defiance of settled Supreme Court authorities, which clearly state that the police are not debt recovery agents. The court described the actions of the officers as an abuse of public office carried out on a “frolic of their own,” noting that such conduct must attract severe punishment to serve as a deterrent.
Consequently, the court ordered the 3rd, 4th and 5th respondents — Inspector Becky James, the Commissioner of Police, Akwa Ibom State, and the Nigeria Police Force — to jointly pay ₦7 million in damages, while the 1st and 2nd respondents were ordered to pay ₦3 million, in addition to ₦200,000 cost of action.
However, investigations reveal that since the judgment was delivered, the Nigeria Police Force has neither filed a notice of appeal nor taken any steps to comply with the orders of the court, a development legal practitioners and rights advocates have described as open contempt for judicial authority.
Analysts argue that by refusing to appeal and also refusing to comply, the police have effectively placed themselves above the Constitution, warning that such conduct represents a dangerous slide into institutional lawlessness. According to them, when an agency constitutionally empowered to enforce court orders becomes a leading violator of those orders, the rule of law collapses and citizens are left defenseless.
Efforts to obtain the reaction of the Akwa Ibom State Police Command proved abortive. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) refused to comment on the matter, despite repeated messages sent to her phone seeking the official position of the Command. No response was received as at the time of filing this report, a silence critics describe as a calculated attempt to evade public accountability.
Human rights groups have further accused the police of weaponising silence and bureaucratic inertia to frustrate justice, insisting that silence in the face of a binding court judgment is not neutrality, but active complicity in illegality.
Calls are now mounting for the Inspector-General of Police, the Police Service Commission, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and the National Human Rights Commission to immediately intervene and compel compliance, warning that failure to act will entrench a culture where court orders are treated as optional directives and citizens’ rights as expendable inconveniences.
Observers warn that if this defiance is allowed to persist unchecked, it will establish a frightening precedent—one in which the police can violate rights, lose in court, ignore the judgment, refuse to appeal, and suffer no consequences—a direct assault on constitutional democracy and the authority of the judiciary.
The judgment, issued under the seal of the court and signed by Joseph G. Ekwere, Deputy Director, remains valid, subsisting and enforceable until set aside by a court of competent jurisdiction.
