The Role of the Nigeria Police Force on Internal National Security and Law Enforcement in Nigeria

Abstract

The primary duties of the Nigeria Police Force as led agency in the provision of internal national security are the protection of life and property, apprehension of offenders, public safety and enforcement of law and order, among others. However, the Nigeria Police for decades has been seen and characterized by most of the Nigerian citizens as directly doing the opposite, ranging from the illegal arrest, unlawful detention, extrajudicial killing and ineffective handling of its statutory responsibilities. These are some of the reasons certain Nigerians even started questioning the desirability or relevancy of the agency. However, some of the basic factors sometimes most of the critics tend to neglect are that, the Nigeria Police Force for decades also has suffered numerous and to some extent deliberate neglects and mal- administration both from within and outside the confines of the Force itself. In other words, the challenges or neglects come from both the government and indeed within the Force itself which at present left it barely in a comatose. Nigeria Police which have been perceived from the colonial era as an element of oppression, thereafter considered as an agent of the state, and subsequently, as those negative factors set in has to loss the trust and confidence of the public it serves As the trust and confidence dwindle, the Police has to be sacrificed some times by the government it represents so as to remain relevant before the eye of the public, consequently, the Police has to loss it all. As the situation present itself, there must be deliberate effort by both the government and members of the Nigeria Police to make effort towards restoring such trust and confidence through dispassionate, effective and efficient discharge of its statutory responsibilities in one hand and effective media adventure in promoting and projecting such efforts with a view to re-gaining the public trust and confidence.

References