Chairperson of the Women Empowerment and Legal Aid (WELA), Funmi Falana, has asked the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to reinstate a policewoman who was sacked for becoming pregnant outside wedlock in Ekiti state.
Falana, in a letter dated Thursday and addressed to the IGP, described the sack as discriminatory, illegal, and unconstitutional.
The Ekiti police command had reportedly defended the sack by quoting Police Act Section 127, which says that any Police officer who is unmarried and eventually gets pregnant shall be disengaged from the force.
But Falana referred the police to a judicial precedence, which mandated that laws that apply to policewomen should also apply to the menfolk.
“In other words, since policemen who impregnate women before marriage are allowed to remain in the Nigeria Police Force,” she said. “It is discriminatory and unjust to dismiss a policewoman for getting pregnant before marriage.”
