Nigeria Police Attitude On Duty And Its Effect On Insecurity

The Police Force was established pursuant to section 214 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and sections 1 and 4 of its enabling Act, 2020, for the protection of lives and properties. Apart from that, they are employed for the prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, the preservation of the law and order, and the enforcement of all laws and regulations with which they are directly charged.

Along with food and shelter, security constitutes the most essential of all man’s needs. According to social contract theorists, security need was the basis of the social contract between the people and the state (which gave rise to the state or government), in which people willingly surrendered their rights to an organ (government) that oversees the survival of all. In this light security embodies the mechanism put in place to avoid, prevent, reduce, or resolve violent conflicts, and threats that originate from other states, non-state actors, or structural socio-political and economic conditions. The opposite of security is insecurity – absence of safety; danger; hazard; uncertainty; lack of protection, and lack of safety.

These definitions of insecurity underscore a major point that those affected by insecurity are not only uncertain or unaware of what would happen but they are also vulnerable to threats and dangers when they occur. Thus, the Nigerian Personnel are expected to exhibit professional and ethical behavior which includes avoiding bribery, falsification or removal of proofs, abuse of duty amongst others.

Moving on, Regulation 370 of the Police Act (Cap 359) particularly addressed unethical work behavior and it states “a member of the force who commits any of the following acts shall be guilty of a punishable offence; absence from duty or being late for duty without leave  or reasonable excuse, corrupt practice…”

Unfortunately, the Nigeria Police Force has a long history of unprofessional and corrupt conduct which is characterized by their attitude on duty especially at checkpoints, the act of extorting countless ordinary civilians who are attempting to make precarious meet. Those who fail to pay are frequently threatened with arrest and physical harm. Consequently, these actions increase high level of insecurity and it sabotaged our national security.  There are also reports of policemen conniving with bandits and kidnappers by providing them with weapons and support due to the mouth-watering rewards they get from such shady deals at the end of the day.  In order to correct this anomaly, there are some certain issues which the necessary authority need to work on.

The Nigerian Police needs to be well equipped particularly by providing sophisticated weapons, policemen becomes vulnerable when they confront criminals brandishing superior weapons and also recruit well-trained personnel who will be able to exhibit good ethical behavior especially on duty.

Good remuneration may be an antidote for bribery and corruption in the police. If Policemen are adequately paid, they may shun bribery and extortion of citizens on the road.

Another thing is there is a need to ensure accountability and transparency when it comes to allocation of weapons to Police officers as it has been discovered that majority of guns and bullets that are usually retrieved from the bandits were owned by Police officers this shows that the allocation of weapons to police officers are not closely monitored.

Training is very essential in an effort to reform the police. There is need for training, retraining and reorientation of the police. They need to update their knowledge and skills in the areas of new crime detention and prevention at this time of herder-farmer clashes, kidnappings, and insurgency

This work cannot be complete without making reference to one fundamental thing that is completely tarnishing the image of the Nigerian Police Force – enforcing contract or meddling into purely civil transactions between parties. The interference of the Police in purely civil matters is an abuse of the statutory powers of the Nigerian Police. We are not oblivious to the fact that the Police receive countless petitions daily alleging one crime or the other, however, the Police is not a robot incapable of methodically sieving through the Petitions to determine if there is criminal element or not in each of the Petition before acting on same. See Anubalu v. State (2019) LPELR-48088(CA). It does not augur well for the society if the Police upon the instigation of a complainant acts outside its statutory defined functions by interfering in simple civil transactions between citizens. Simply put, it is neither the duty nor the power of the Police to serve as agents of any person, be it an individual or a corporate citizen or even agents of Government at either the Federal or State or Local Government level, to enforce commercial disputes, under any guise or pretext of investigating a crime in a purely civil dispute without any element of criminality. See Section 8(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, wherein it is provided thus: “A suspect shall not be arrested merely for a civil wrong or breach of contract.

This prevalent attitude of involving the Police in a purely civil transaction under the guise of commission of a crime has received scathing deprecations by the Supreme Court in a multitude of cases. In Diamond Bank PLC v. Opara & Ors (2018) LPELR-43907(SC), Per Bage J. S. C. Remarked at page 30 thus:

“…What is even more disturbing in recent times is the way and manner the Police and some other security agencies, rather than focus squarely on their statutory functions of investigation, preventing and prosecuting crimes, allow themselves to be used by overzealous and/or unscrupulous characters for the recovery of debts arising from simple contracts, loans or purely civil transactions. Our security agencies, particularly the police, must know that the citizenry’s confidence in them ought to first be ensured by the agencies themselves by jealously guarding the integrity of the uniform and powers conferred on them.

“The beauty of salt is in its taste. Once salt loses its own taste, its value is irredeemably lost. I say this now and again, *our security agencies, particularly the police, are not debt recovery agencies.* The agencies themselves need to first come to this realization, shun all entreaties in this regard and they will see confidence gradually restored in them. Where we are now in this country is that place where our “Men in black & blue” command almost no respect from the citizenry because of how low we have sunk. But it is my belief which belief, I must say I hold very dearly, that all hope is not lost, many women and men of deep integrity are in our security agencies, and they only need to rise now to the occasion.”

By way of conclusion, despite been dotted by several law enforcement agencies  Nigeria has witnessed a rising wave of internal security challenges in recent times. This situation has been blamed on many institutional inadequacies found within the security agencies, notable corruption.  This research finds that although the Police Force is the preeminent public institution established to assure the security of lives and property within the country, the institution has ironically functioned more as an enabler of corruption, insecurity, and perpetrator of illegality. If the Police Force can work on the above-mentioned areas and also conduct themselves in a respectful manner while carrying out their duties, the  Police force will make headway in its fight against insecurity and criminality in the society.

TheNigeriaLawyer Editorial