The Nigeria Police authority has dragged five senior police officers before an Abuja High Court over what authorities described as deliberate falsification of age records to unlawfully extend their years of service.
According to Sahara Reporters, court filings on Wednesday revealed that Justice Yusuf Halilu of the FCT High Court has fixed Thursday, September 25, 2025, for their arraignment on a 14-count criminal charge.
Those named in the charge sheet include Idowu Owohunwa, a retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police; Benneth Igwe, a retired Commissioner of Police; Ukachi Opara, a retired Commissioner of Police; Obo Ukam Obo, a retired Deputy Commissioner of Police; and Simon Lough, a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police.
The documents also referred to “others at large.”
According to the charges, Owohunwa allegedly doctored his age declaration in December 2024 in Abuja, claiming he was born on July 20, 1970 rather than his true date of birth.
Igwe, in another count, was accused of altering his record to reflect 1968 instead of 1964 as his birth year, with contradictions also discovered in his enlistment papers which variously showed 1988 and 1996 as entry dates.
The police further alleged that ACP Lough falsified his age in July 2022, shifting his date of birth from May 14, 1967 to May 14, 1969 in violation of the Public Service Rules.
The offences, the prosecution maintained, are punishable under Sections 97, 161, 366 and 158 of the Penal Code.
But the accused officers have dismissed the charges as baseless, insisting the case was engineered by a petition from a civil society group, Integrity Youth Alliance, led by Kelvin Adegbenga.
The group had in January accused them of manipulating official service records to remain in uniform.
Following the petition, the IGP issued queries of serious misconduct on January 7, 2025. In his reply dated January 16, 2025, Owohunwa admitted there was a “mix-up” in his APER Form for senior officers which mistakenly altered his birth year from 1967 to 1970, but stressed that his official appointment date of August 15, 1996 had never changed.
Igwe and Lough equally denied wrongdoing, claiming the petitioner confused their files with the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) scheme, which permits qualified officers to be upgraded and automatically treated as if they had resigned from their earlier positions upon conversion.
Despite their defence, it was learnt that the police hierarchy insisted the contradictions were weighty enough to warrant prosecution.
