ABUSE OF POWER AND CONSTRAINTS

INTRODUCTION

Policemen have probably been the targets of negative responses from citizens from nearly the beginning of organized law enforcement. In Nigeria, the constitution guarantees individual freedom, therefore in the eyes of many, the less the police intrude into their personal affairs, the better people have been antagonistic to the police for various justifiable reasons, may have attributed police functions to oppression of the poor by the rich with active connivance of the police. The use of the police by the strong to change the course of justice against the weak is rampant. The police are too ready to be used for various illegal or questionable enforcement procedures. The use of the police by repressive governments especially during the military era, further shows the negative use of police powers. 

The law as we have seen above specifies for main responsibilities of the police, these are: -

1. Prevention and detection of crime. 
2. the preservation of law and order. 
3. The protection of life and property and 
4. Due enforcement of all laws and regulations with which they are directly charged. They may also perform military duties within and outside Nigeria wherever they are required to do so. The pursuit of their duties and exercise of their powers have been over the years been abused so grossly that it has overshadowed their original responsibilities. 

 Police Killings

Allegations of summary killings against the police in Nigeria is widespread while some occur at police checks points and during patrol duty, others are committed in cold blood at police stations or during torture and interrogation of suspects.

There are many sensational cases like the case of Dele Udoh a popular athlete who was murdered by the police at a check point in 1981, there was the killing of six persons at Apo Village, Abuja popularly called the Apo six, University students have been killed randomly for one reason or the other, the list is unending in its 1990 report on Human Rights in Nigeria, the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) notes that the year ‘witnessed horrible cases of police abuse of citizens several reports of police killings, many of which occurred while the victims were in custody. There are also reported cases of massacre in warrior parts of the country by the police.

These killings are totally unjustified, illegal, unconstitutional and gross abuse of power. The constitution of Nigeria guarantees the right to life and nobody is allowed to take another persons life without any just cause.

Torture

The police in their pursuit of so called investigation finodes it easier to employ torture as a quick way of extracting information from suspects. Those are wide ranging, from the studies and investigations of human rights groups in Nigeria, these include, beatings, hanging, applying electric shocks, corporal punishments, using hardened criminals to inflict the torture on innocent people etc. these action is unconstitutional, barbaric and ought to be stopped. S. 34(1) of the constitution provides “every individual is entitled to respect of the dignity of his person, an accordingly,

a. No person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment. Though the use of torture to extract information from suspects by the police is illegal, yet it seems that the practice continues inedited and the only justification by the police is that there is no other means of obtaining the information and sadly, there is no machinery in place within the police system or outside it to step the abuse of fundamental rights of citizens by the police.

 Unlawful Arrests

Although the law permits the police to arrest without a warrant under specified conditions, the police enjoy abusing this power deliberately and arrest innocent people who do not fall into the categories stated under the law. In many cases the police in search of suspects arrests relatives and family of suspects and detains them until they produce the suspect. How can a person detained produce someone at large? Nigerian laws do not permit of hostage taking, but the police abuse their powers without any check or hindrance. The constitution also guarantees freedom of personal liberty, but the constitutional provision is always ignored by the police to perpetrate their illegal acts.

Denial of Bail

As we have learnt above, bail is a right and not a privilege. It is not at the discretion of the police, it is mandatory that the person arrested must be released on bail, where he could not be brought before a court within 24 hours insofar as it is not a capital offence the person arrested must be released on bail. However, the bail process by the police is terribly corrupted. Bail in Nigeria must be paid for and contrary to the police slogan that bail is free, the contrary is the practice. You are made to bargain for your release, and as soon as they impose a certain amount you are not to be released unless you pay them. People have been detained for months simply because they could not afford the bail fee. This illegal practice must be checked and halted immediately, and those policemen who indulge in this abuse of power brought to book.

Police Prosecution

The use of police power to prosecute is also a subject of abuse. In most case the police prosecutors are deeply corrupted, and believe that they are doing the complainant, some service that he should pay for they had therefore found ways of corrupting the process and collect gratifications from

complainants in order to prosecute the cases; if not the files could easily disappear, or the cases are not properly handled. They also collect gratification from accused persons and therefore handle the matter so negligently that the accused is discharged for want of diligent prosecution. Another problem is that majority are not trained, incompetent and outtrightly lazy, they do not read their files, and are usually uncoordinated, to the extent that simple cases are lost on the basis of their negligence only. The only solution is to employ only lawyers by the police to prosecute cases in the courts and stop the use of any police officer.

Judges Rules

The practice started in England about 1912 when some rules were formulated by Judges of the British kings. Bench as a measure of guidance for police officers taking statements from suspects especially in police custody. The rules though not specifically made applicable by statute in Nigeria but is still generally observed. Failure to comply with the rules will definitely affect the credibility and weight to be attached to the statement. Where during a trial, there is allegation that a statement obtained by the police officer was not voluntarily obtained, the court must inquire through procedure known as trial within trial. The accused person will call witnesses or give evidence do establish the fact that he was tortured before the statement made by him was obtained, or it was not made by him at all. The statement may be rejected by the court.

The first rule provides that when a police officer is trying to discover whether or by whom, an offence has been committed he may ask questions from persons whether suspect or not, and upon satisfaction that a particular person may have committed the offence, he must caution the person as follows: -

“You are not obliged to say anything unless you wish to do so but what you say, may be put in writing and given in evidence”. The police will then continue if there is reason to do so as follows, “Do you wish to say anything? You are not obliged to say anything unless you wish to do so, but whatever you say will be taken down in writing and may be given in evidence.”

In practice, he Nigerian Police have devised a statement paper with the words of caution, which also include the statement which is first signed by the accused person that he has been cautioned, and he voluntarily opt to give the statements; he will first sign this. Then, after giving the statement, he is taken before a senior officer, who also attests to it that the statement was voluntarily made.

Constraints on Policing

The police are not super human being, they are humans too, and operate within a given framework, and cannot certainly perform better than their historical structural and environmental modes. The police also have monumental constraints which if not tackled, will ensure that we continue to have the same type of policing and officers that we love to hate.

The colonial police was established principally not to combat crime but an occupation force, to protect the interest of the colonialist as against the “natives”. It was this mentality that the modern Nigeria police came to inherit, and up till now still have not completely succeeded in shaking off their imperial historical posts.

Corruption has eaten deep into the fabrics of the Nigerian police it is not a secret that if you wish to do anything with the Nigeria police, you must go with money as bribe. They collect bribes on the road, in their stations before bail is granted, etc. the general belief is that it is impossible to achieve anything in the police unless you offer gratification until this corruption is properly checked and stopped; it may be difficult to have a corrupt free society, as the police who is charged with the responsible are themselves corrupt.

The Nigeria police are not well trained, though there are police colleges in the country, the output of the college’s points only to all training and no training. They lack training in basic police investigations. Nigeria police do not have a data bank or criminals, and if they do is not useful to them. Crime fighting equipments like vehicles, communication equipments, etc are lacking, so that in cases of urgent interventions, you hardly can get through to them, when you do, they inform you that they do not have a vehicle to respond. Some State Governments have tried in the provision of some of these gadgets, and every year the Government promises to equip the police, but this is yet to make serious impact on the Nigeria police.

Many believe, due to the way and manner the police officers respond to crime especially the junior officers, that they are frustrated with their work. Their salary is very low, and almost every year the government promises to inprove their condition of service. But it seems, this is yet to achieve any useful purpose. They are angry, and so see the citizens as enemies that must be exploited and dealt with. Their condition of living within their barracks is bad, they live in poorly maintained and over crowded barracks. In most cases, they spend their money to renovate the barracks, there is no water or light, in most cases, all these have direct effect on the attitude and efficiency of the police.

The Nigeria police force is poorly funded, and when the government release money to them, the corruption within the police system itself is so bad that it is the very top eschellon of the force that embezzle the money, and so the conditions always remain the same.

While the criminals have become more daring using automatic weapons, the police are unable to match the criminals in sophistication and so gives an impression of powerlessness and frustration.

 CONCLUSION

There are serious constraints in the police in Nigeria. They are not well trained, they are not properly equipped, their condition of service needs to be improved, their living conditions, etc, need to be improved, unless we wish to continue as usual, the Nigeria police is likely to degenerate further unless the basic constraints are tackled by the government.

SUMMARY

Having examined the problems and difficulties of the police in achieving their given responsibilities under the law. The constraints are all inter related, interdependent and all must be looked into as an issue for proper development and efficiency of the Nigeria police force.