AN EXAMINATION OF THE LEGAL FRAMEWORKS FOR CONTROL AND SUPERVISION OF THE NIGERIA POLICE BY THE EXECUTIVE ORGAN OF GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA

The Nigeria Police is a creation of the Nigerian Constitution and other extant laws. For effective performance of its functions, the Nigeria Police is placed under some institutions which include the executive organ of the government, the legislature and the judiciary, aside from the command control mechanism inherent in the Inspector-General of Police with his subordinate instructors. This paper examined the legal frameworks for the control and supervision of the police by the executive arm of governments in Nigeria. These were with a view to evaluating the scope and extent of powers of the various institutions in the executive organ of government saddled with the responsibilities of controlling and supervising police institution and personnel under the Nigerian Law. To achieve its objective, the study relied on primary and secondary sources of information. The primary source included unstructured interviews with relevant authorities, judicial decisions, the successive constitutions of the Federal republic of Nigeria, states and federal laws governing the control and command of the Force. The secondary source of information included books, journal articles, conference proceedings, newspaper publications and the internet. Data collected were subjected to content analysis. The paper found that though, adequate constitutional and statutory provisions are made for effective supervision of the Nigeria Police, and its personnel, institutional lapses arising from overlapping responsibilities, lack of adequate funding and over-delegation of duties, no doubt, account for low performance of police personnel and rots in the institutional discipline in the police. This paper, therefore, recommended adequate funding of the police and the supervisory agencies as a functional panacea for police effectiveness in Nigeria.