Judge threatens to arrest inspector general of police Ibrahim Idris for contempt of court

INSPECTOR-general of police Ibrahim Idris is facing the prospect of imprisonment for contempt of court after Justice Ibrahim Yusuf of the Ilorin High Court threatened to have him arrested for disobeying a court order.

During a hearing yesterday, Justice Yusuf expressed dismay that Mr Idris disobeyed the order of the court to release Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed’s personal assistant on political matters, Mr Olalekan Alabi. His threat was contained in a Notice of Consequences of Disobedience of Order of Court (Form 48) dated 10 August, 2018.

Made available yesterday, the order was signed by the registrar of the court and addressed to the inspector-general of police, Force Headquarters, Abuja. It read: “Take notice that unless you obey the directions contained in the order of the High Court of Justice of Kwara State delivered on the 1st of August, 2018, you will be guilty of contempt of court and will be liable to be committed to prison.”

Mr Alabi had been in police custody in Abuja since May 30, following his arrest over his alleged link with the Offa bank robbery suspects. However, Justice Yusuf had on Wednesday, August 1, 2018, granted Mr Alabi an interim bail after declaring that his continued detention was illegal and not justifiable.

While granting him an interim bail of N20m with two reliable sureties in like sum, Justice Yusuf held that the police had failed to justify why they had kept the governor’s aide in detention for over two months. Despite the court order, however, the police had failed to release Mr Alabi from their custody.