The Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, has written the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Kayode Egbetokun, asking him to immediately halt the nationwide enforcement of the tinted glass permit.
The legal body, in the letter it served the IGP on Thursday, drew his attention to the fact that issues surrounding the legality of the tinted glass policy, is already pending before the Federal High Court in Abuja, warning that “the Nigeria Police, as a law enforcement agency, should know better not to be lawless.”
This came on a day that police officers who were on the street to enforce the orders of the Assistant Inspector-General, AIG, Zone 5, on tinted glass permit, allegedly impounded a vehicle belonging to a judge of the National Industrial Court, NIC, in Delta State.
Reacting to the development, the NBA, through the Chairman of its Special Public Interest Litigation Committee, NBA-SPIDEL, Mr. Kunle Edun, SAN, told Vanguard that human rights committees of the 130 branches of the association have been activated to offer free legal services to motorists.
He said: “We shall invoke the powers of the Court to ensure that the Nigeria Police Force does not trample on the rights of Nigerians. Any citizen that is harrassed by the Police in the purported enforcement of the illegal tinted glass permit by the Police should be free to contact any of the NBA branches.
“The Human Rights Committees of the 130 branches of the NBA in Nigeria are ready to offer pro bono services to anyone that is harrassed.
“It has been estimated that the Police may generate at least N3billion within a month from monies that will be collected, thus, turning the Police into a revenue- generating agency of the Federal government instead of focusing on the more serious issues crime.
“The matter is in Court and the Nigeria Police as a law enforce should know better not to be lawless.
Nigeria belongs to all of us and the Police should avoid anything that will provoke the members of the public.”Likewise, the NBA which is the umbrella body of legal practitioners in the country, in its letter to the IGP, reminded him of a previous correspondence dated September 25, which invited his aattention to the pending suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1821, 2025.“
However, despite the fact that your good office has been served with advance copies of the Originating Summons and Motion on Notice for injunction, there have been several statements from the Public Relations Department of the Nigeria Police Force particularly authored by the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin and some state police commands across the country, suggesting, albeit very worrisomely, that the Nigeria Police Force would proceed to commence enforcement of the tinted glass permit policy tomorrow the 2nd October 2025.
“Kindly permit us to restate the settled and ubiquitous position of the law that a party served with an Originating Process and especially a Motion on Notice for Interlocutory Injunction has a duty imposed on him by law to maintain the status quo ante bellum until the case is determined by the court one way or the other.
“In order words, the party on whom a motion for injunction has been served has a duty to keep the state of things the way they were at the time he was served with the motion in order to not foist a situation of helplessness on the court.”
Continuing, the NBA, which cited several legal authorities, stated: “Having regard to this above position of the law as magisterially laid down by the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, it is very clear that the pendency of Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/1821/2025 should automatically put a stop to the enforcement of the tinted glass permit policy pending the time when the court would arrive at a decision on the questions raised for determination in the Originating Summons, one way or the other.