Time for a Police Investigation Code

By Douglas Ogbankwa

Nigeria Police Act 2020 brought some new vistas to Policing and Police Business in Nigeria. However, there are still some deficiencies.

There is, however, a need for there to be a Nigeria Police Investigation Code that will delimit the dos and don’ts of Police Investigations and recommend penalties for failure to adhere to same. Penalties deter Impunity.

Once the Police Officer understands that his Investigations will be scrutinized and his failure to apply due diligence and due process in his Investigation Activities, would lead to some consequences, such a Police Officer will exercise considerable restraint in engaging in any unwholesome Investigation Activities.

The Nigeria Police Investigation Code will also let the Police Officers in, on basic Investigation Techniques that must be done in certain cases. For Example, in a case where someone has pleaded an alibi, that alibi must be investigated to ascertain its veracity or otherwise. There should also be proper scrutiny of Case files to remove contradictory documents that make Police Prosecutions fail.

Also, there should be a way to ensure that the Final Investigation Report correlates with the facts of the case on one hand and also that the Charge preferred by the Police conforms with the Final Investigation Report. We must stop the practice of the same sets of facts in two separate cases, investigated by the same Police, arriving at different outcomes.

The Power available to an Investigative Police Officer (IPO) is excessive. He can do whatever he likes as his report is the Official Version of any Story, except he is checked by his superiors. By the time you get the real version of the story, some persons will be rotting in jail.

My Lord’s Hon Judges and their Worships, Magistrates must insist that the Proof of Evidence must be attached to every Formal Charge charge Sheet or Remand Proceedings, respectively. Every ex parte order sought to remand a suspect, must also have attached to it the proof of evidence. This is to put all cards on the table and give sufficient facts to the Judge or Magistrate to be able to exercise his discretion in good conscience, using all the available facts in the case.

The action of arresting before Investigation should also stop. It is archaic, anachronistic, and crude. A Person should only be arrested when the Police are affirmative that the facts available to them will establish the guilt of a suspect.

In this regard, Investigations should be conducted first, before any arrest. This can only be achieved if the Police were properly funded. If the Police had one-tenth of the funds available to other Security Agencies in Nigeria, they would perform better.

The in-road made by the Police in their investigations makes them look like magicians, judging from an almost total lack of funds in doing their investigation activities. As it is now, the Police buy their case files from private vendors and buy their uniforms.

An average Nigerian Police Man is like a National Orphan, not well catered. The Police should also be removed from the contributory pension scheme as other Organs of the Armed Forces have been removed. This will boost the morale of Police Officers and Police Men. The current monthly pension of a Police Personnel that of the rank of commissioner of Police and below is next to nothing, for their standing in the Society. Cases will be properly investigated if a Police Personnel knows that he will not suffer when he retires.

One of the reasons some Police Personnel collect bribes is because they know their future is not secure in the job. Better welfare leads to better investigation of cases.

A good investigation of cases can only happen if Investigation Activities and Police Business are funded. Let us ensure that the Police business gets to the grassroots and that the money is properly utilized for the purposes it is provided for and for the same to be properly accounted for.

The Detaining Mentality must also stop. Once a person makes a Statement and you find that nothing is connecting him or her to the Complaint at that time or the crime is bailable as provided for by Law, you let him go, as this is the International Best Practice.

Why detain a suspect at all, when you will eventually release him or her, most times the next day? The name should also be Charged from suspect to Respondent, the same way it has been changed from Accused to Defendant in Court. A person who is a suspect should be accorded the same rights and Privileges as the Complainant, as the current norm of the Police treating the Complainant better than the suspect has no place in any Nigerian law. They are both equal before the Law. Sometimes, a Complainant can turn around to be the suspect and vice versa.

We say Bail is free, but in Nigeria, most times you have to pay to go home while in detention. This has made some Police Men abandon the real Police Business and begin to do their own business, using citizens of the Country as a commodity for trade. This is, however, not applicable to all Police Men; some do things the right way, I must say. It is time for us to have an Agency that will Police the Police; that should be made of Lawyers, Criminologists, and Sociologists, who will not be stationed in the Police Facility.

This Agency should be called the Police Internal Affairs, or better still, the Police Service Commission should have Offices in all States and Local Government in Nigeria, while its jurisdiction for trials should be expanded to accommodate all Police Officers to ensure a level playing field between a Complainant and a Police Officer.

All these were highlighted above to show some of the things to be included in the proposed Nigeria Police Investigation Code. The Police Must reform itself, using the recent protests from Nigerian Citizens as a measure to avert a reoccurrence.

We can make things better, which will, in turn, make better things. Change is a challenge to the adventurous but a threat to the obscure and insecure. We can get it right! Once our Police, Lawyers, and the Judiciary do the right thing, every other person in Society will act right and do the right thing knowing that the long arm of the Law will catch up with him or her if he or she did otherwise.

Ogbankwa, douglasogbankwa@gmail.com, is the Convener of the Security Situation Room