THE OPERATIONAL STANDARD OF THE NIGERIAN POLICE: ISSUES AND THE WAY FORWARD

What gave impetus to this research is the fact that the Nigerian Police have continuously violated human rights of Nigerian citizens despite the existence of the United Nations’ (UN) globally accepted norms governing the conducts of police officers and the institution of police universally. The aim of this article is therefore to examine the operational standard of the Nigerian Police to determine if it aligns with the universal standard of Policing. In carrying-out this research, the author adopted the doctrinal research method which deals with the use of both primary and secondary sourced materials. The author takes the stance that the operational standard of policing in Nigeria falls short of the universally accepted standard of policing as provided for by the UN in various international instruments. During the course of the research, it was found among others that aside from the required basic training for Police officers and the Police Detective College, there seem to be no further training available to Police officers prior to their first deployment as Investigating Police Officers (IPOs). This fact contributes to the shortage of qualified IPOs thereby falling short of the universal expected standard of policing. The author therefore recommended among others that there should be a special training and retraining of designated officers of the NPF as IPOs. The training and retraining of the IPOs should be critical on standard investigating criteria and procedures that guarantees the protection of human rights of suspects where necessary.