Federal and State police in Nigeria: Matters of Jurisdiction, checks & balances

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Monday, January 10, 2000 to French to Spanish to German to Italian to Portuguese  Emmanuel Uzo Obi  euzoobi@hotmail.com

Since the President Obasanjo assumed office, his government has been unable to effectively deal with the problem of the upsurge in crimes. Measures immediately taken by the Presidency clearly show the unwillingness of the administration to learn from mistakes of the past. In an earlier article published at the inception of the Obasanjo administration at http://www.nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/obi/police.html I highlighted some of the mistakes past governments had made each time they wanted to re-organise the Police. Shortly after, this government made exactly the same mistakes namely; swapping of Police commissioners, the Police IG moved his office to Lagos, transfer of officers, abolishing of roadblocks etc. etc. All these had no effect on the crime situation and this led this administration to give orders which could create serious human rights abuse problems for itself. For example, using the army for law enforcement, the shoot at sight order etc. The first mistake of the Obasanjo administration is that of viewing law enforcement in a civil society as a war situation, hence the deployment of a retired army general as minister of Police affairs. It must be stated categorically, that the challenges that face law enforcement in Lagos or any part of Nigeria, is not greater than what law enforcement is confronted with either in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or any city in the United States. With the mind set of a military man, Nigeria's leaders tend to declare war on the civilian population if it can't cope with crime. GOLDEN NUGGET All local and state agencies should have terriotorial jurisdiction in the areas they cover. For example, a city police department, within city limits, and a LG sheriff's department, within the LGA. Ironically, in the United States law enforcement is under the management of the justice department; lawyers, whereas in Nigeria, our law enforcement is in the hands of soldiers. This is why when the administration runs out of solutions, it gives shoot at sight orders or deploy soldiers. Most Nigerians in Nigeria may be surprised to know that most federal law enforcement agencies in the US are supervised by the US Attorney General. Even with this arrangement, activities of these agencies at all levels of Government are subject to review and control. There are many things wrong with the Nigerian system of law enforcement and unless these things are corrected, the performance of the Police will never improve. It is not enough to fully equip the Police, as what is required is not only a total restructuring in the real sense, but also remodeling, repackaging and repositioning of the Police. There has been suggestions to change the 'elephant'in the logo and the name from NPF to Nigerian Police Service. These suggestions coming from the top, no matter how well intentioned, over simplifies the problem and does not go to the root of the problem. From the utterrances of both the IGP and Minister Jemibewon, it is clear none of them have taken time to study how modern law enforcement work is structured and managed in countries with more sophisticated crimes. The ineffectiveness of the present structure has given rise to calls for a state police. Listening to both proponents and opponents of the state police, it is clear both sides do not understand how a decentralised system of law enforcement operates, or is regulated. Governors Tinubu and Ezeife for example, show clear cut ignorance of a decentralised system of Police even though both were former students in the United States. Also Parry Osayande, a retired DIGP(well known for the Anini/Osunbor arrests) demonstrates lack of knowledge of matters that affect multiple police jurisdictions in a federal system of Government. The shelf life of knowledge these days is very short, and unless one keeps abreast of new developments, it is difficult to find better solutions to our problems. This is also a problem that the Government faces with the management of the national economy. Decentralisation encourages specialisation and efficiency. This is a fact in practice. Decentralisation could cause abuse and conflict in Jurisdiction if there are no well laid out guidelines. To carry out decentralisation of the Police, the political structure of the Government must be taken into account. ALL levels of Government, namely local, state and federal must share the responsibility of law enforcement. Therefore, the LG must take responsibility for municipal policing, the state for state police and federal for federal offences and matters that cut across state boundaries. Next, there must be guidelines and supervisory framework for the operation of this system. Today in the modern world, law enforcement goes hand in hand with public safety and are inseperable. The Fire Department and Emergency Medical service(ambulances) are all part of the law enforcement and public safety apparatus. Unfortunately, our policy makers in Nigeria are yet to realise this, and are still very far behind. In this article, my focus is on Jurisdiction, regulatory framework and a national gun control policy. The structural set up I recommend earlier can be found in the above site. JURISDICTION. This subject has been looked at from two major areas namely: (a)Jurisdiction by Territory (b)Jurisdiction by Subject Matter. (a)Jurisdiction by Territory: This discussion flows from the recommended structure as found at http://www.nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/obi/police.html All federal agencies should have jurisdiction in all constituent parts of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In other words, they should have concurrent jurisdiction with all local and state agencies in their respective terriotories. Where there is a conflict, the federal agency that has exclusive or concurrent jurisdiction over the subject matter prevails. However, in a subject matter such as state offences, local and state agencies should have residual jurisdiction except that where there is a petition to the Attorney General of the Federation about some misconduct on the part of a state agency such as cover up, set up etc, the appropriate federal agency may conduct a preliminary investigation to verify such complaints. In the case of a misconduct by a local government agency, the complaint should first come before the state AG. Where the allegations are credible, the federal agency may act first, by directing the state agency to make amends , failing which the federal agency should take over the case. Such action must of course be filed with the National Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies which I earlier on recommended. The chiefs of each agency should be held personally responsible for misconduct of their agencies. All local and state agencies should have terriotorial jurisdiction in the areas they cover. For example, a city police department, within city limits, and a LG sheriff's department, within the LGA. FLIGHT FROM PROSECUTION: This is the area that retired DIGP Parry Osayande has some concerns. Where for example, a suspect flees outside the jurisdiction of the arresting agency, the agency with wider jurisdiction may arrest the suspect. If the suspect flees outside the city but within the LGA, the LG Sheriff's dept should carry out the arrest. If it is a flight outside the jurisdiction of the LG Sheriff but within the state, the state agency carries out the arrest. Now, where the flight from prosecution cut's across state boundaries, this should constitute an additional but seperate federal offence to be handled by the federal directorate of investigations. Nigeria has not come to the point of having extradiction treaties, but every police department should have an intelligence unit so that cases of flight from prosecution could be appropriately handled in the manner suggested above. (b)Jurisdiction by subject matter Federal agencies should have exclusive jurisdiction on specified federal offences. However, local or state agencies may arrest a suspect where a violation occurs, in close collaboration with the relevant federal agency, provided however, that the alleged violation occured within the terriotory of the arresting federal or state agency. REGULATORY FRAMEWORK. This subject has been treated in greater detail elsewhere, but I re-emphasize my earlier call for the setting up of a National Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies. Carreer Police officers may not like the idea of accreditation, but this is very necessary with our emerging democratic arrangement. The Ministry of Police Affairs should form the nucleus for this decentralised Police. However, it should only be saddled with the responsibility of state and local agencies. Federal agencies should operate under the relevant supervising ministry, as for example, the federal directorate of investigations, ndlea, sss, and immigration should be under the Attorney General. There should be an office of inspector-general in the ministry of justice to review activities of the FDII. On civil disturbances such as occured at Odi etc. , my view is that a national guard should be constituted under the Presidency. The present Mobile Police Force should be reorganised and retrained and reconstituted as a national guard to be deployed only in extreme circumstances. Their training should not and is not the same as military training. The army should be faced fully with only defence against external aggression and not maintaining peace in a civil population. Weapons certification should also be handled by the NCALEA for the state and local departments. NATIONAL GUN CONTROL POLICY. The government must as a matter of urgency, formulate a national gun control policy. There are many guns in circulation and there is no national policy on gun control. It is important that those who need certain kinds of guns should be able to obtain them in a legal manner and if they are qualified. This brings to question the issue of local gun permit boards and also the idea of a government gun buy-back program. The spate of assassinations are assuming an alarming proportion and only a well articulate policy can help citizens defend themselves before being cut down by criminals. The state of the economy also directly impacts on the crime rate and one would only hope that government designs and implements poverty alleviation programs that directly deal with the problem. On gun control for instance, certain people should not be qualified. Persons with drug and alcohol problems, domestic violence convicts, the unemployed, assault convicts, communicating threat obviously do not need guns whether or not they are retired military officers. TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICS. The type of vehicles used for Police work has a greater capability than regular vehicles. It is amusing when I hear Government officials say they have placed order for more vehicles from Peogeout Automobile PAN in kaduna. In the United States for example, Police cars are usually Chevrolet Caprice, Ford Crown Victoria Police Versions. The Police versions of these vehicles are UPGRADES of the versions sold to the general public. While not sounding as a salesman for General Motors, it is important that our police is equipped with the right kind of equipment. This is not an exhaustive discussion of this important subject of law enforcement, but I have touched briefly on areas that need be carefully studied. The larger and more detailed plan which I suggest deals with such details as abolition of police cells and dungeons, implementation phases, financing, re-training and re-orientation, Telecommunications and Radio communications, Emergency Response Time, abolition of police barracks, police information systems and even how the present Nigeria Police should be phased out. A new image for the police, better training and recertification requirements, better equipment, better uniform and infrastructural support, re-orientation are some of the things we need to move forward. There is talk about changing the name of the Police to Nigeria Police Service. This will do nothing except create new business for changing name style on vehicles, stationery etc. For instance, local agencies in the United States are known as Police departments with the name of the city or town preceding. The motto of the Raleigh Police Department for example, is "to serve and protect" Except for a few abuses, citizens get the sense that the police is actually to serve and protect. Personally, I have used the services of the police a number of times; the kind of thing that many cannot get in Nigeria.