A Review of the Police Reform Bill 2018 By Abdul Mahmud and Okey Nwanguma

The Nigerian Police Force is governed by a colonial law, which
has seen no comprehensive review since its initial promulgation in
1943. Since 1999, following the return to democratic practices in
Nigeria, several efforts have been undertaken to review the Police
Act to provide a legal framework for the ongoing reform
initiatives. The review started in November 2004 and was undertaken
by an interagency committee comprised of police, government and
civil society representatives.

It involved several stages of public consultation and a legal
audit of all the laws engaging the police. A draft bill was
discussed and approved by the interagency committee before it was
finally presented to the House of Representatives towards the end
of 2005. Between 2005 and 2018, many other drafts were presented to
both chambers of the National Assembly.

However, the 8th Senate has expressed its will to consider and
pass a new Police Act and other Police Reform bills within two
weeks. One of the key omissions from the current Act is a Code of
Conduct that includes the prohibition of torture. The Bill contains
a full Code of Conduct in line with the United Nation’s Code of
Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials. Article 5 of the Code of
Conduct states that, “No law enforcement official may inflict,
instigate or tolerate any act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment, nor may any law enforcement
official invoke superior orders or exceptional circumstances such
as a state of war or a threat of war, a threat to national
security, internal political instability or any other public
emergency as a justification of torture or other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment.”

The Bill incorporates the human rights provisions in the
Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), which were basically
drawn from the Nigerian Constitution. In recognition of the
demonstrable link between unlawful and arbitrary arrest and the
torture and ill-treatment of detainees, the sections of the Bill
relating to arrest are drafted to incorporate safeguards, including
strict guidelines on what constitutes a warrant for arrest and
judicial review that will prevent the misuse of this provision. We
shall come to this point later.

In addition, measures to improve the effectiveness of the
Nigerian Police, such as training and upgrading the requirements
for recruitment and performance measures are also included. The
Bill also makes a provision for police funding and an annual
policing plan which must be linked to funding to ensure
accountability for cost and performance, just as human rights
provisions and accountability mechanisms ensure accountability for
conduct.

It is also instructive to note that positive policy initiatives,
such as community policing, are also incorporated to guarantee the
long-term sustainability of such programs and insulate them from
the whimsical and capricious political leaders. Perhaps the
thorniest issue of the review is that of the political
accountability of the police. Under the current Act, the Inspector
General of Police is appointed and accountable to the President who
has overall operational control of the force.

This is in line with existing constitutional provisions, but
clearly compromises the independence of the police force, leaving
it open to political manipulation by the executive arm. The new
bill amends sections to grant the Police Council an advisory role
in the appointment of an IGP by the President, set out procedure
for removing an IGP and the grounds for such removal as well as
give security of tenure to the IGP, this is necessary to extend
accountability and promote accountable policing in Nigeria.

Restoring Public Confidence in the Police
Force

We return to the sections of the Bill that deal with unlawful
and arbitrary arrest, torture and ill-treatment of detainees. The
way officers of the Nigeria Police Force conduct themselves during
arrests of alleged offenders of the Law, or during breaches of
public peace and order, invariably places them in conflict with the
freedoms guaranteed by a democratic nation-state.

A Police Officer is not expected in a democratic nation-state to
pull his gun while apprehending defenceless offenders of law, nor
is he expected to push citizens into custodial black holes, without
proper procedures or without entering records of arrest or
detention of an apprehended offender. In a decent and sane society,
the Police institution is expected to have records of those kept in
its holding facilities, or of those who are unfortunate to either
pass through its holding facilities or serve out punishments as a
result of breaking the law. A Police institution that takes
recourse to brute force rather than applying practices consistent
with the law only ends up diminishing its own authority, and losing
the public confidence in the process.

As the scholars, Jinsik Pak and Julak Lee argue, “the low level
of law and order is one of the examples that show the low extent of
public confidence in police authority. Many scholars and police
officers agree that citizens’ distrust of their police authority is
the fundamental reason that leads to a trend whereby both the law
and police power are ignored, and it weakens the capability of a
police authority to fulfill its own duties for the maintenance of
law and order”.

They are right in their argument; and in a way they also help to
center the argument that public confidence in the police authority
is the key to promoting successful law enforcement strategies for
securing public order, law and peace.

The question we pose here is this: how can the Police Reform
Bill 2018 restore public confidence in the Police Force? First, as
we noted in the foregoing, the Bill specifically states in its
commencement provisions that it seeks to create “a more efficient
and effective Police Force that is based on the principles of:
accountability and transparency; and protection of human rights and
fundamental freedoms”.

The Bill, therefore, purports to establish “a Police Force that
is more responsible and responsive to the needs of the general
public and entrenches in its operations the values of fairness,
justice and equity”. The Bill captures the essentials of public
confidence in the operations of the Police Force by seeking to
“reposition the Police Force to uphold and safeguard the
fundamental rights of every person in Nigeria in its operations;
bring about a positive change in the public perception of the
Police Force by ensuring that its functions are carried out in a
manner sensitive to the needs and well-being of the general
public”.

One manner of ensuring change of perception and imbuing public
confidence in the operations of the Police Force is by ensuring
proper and lawful arrests generally, without unnecessary
restraints, conducting lawful searches of criminal suspects,
examination of suspects, and detention of suspect in humane holding
facilities, with their rights to bail secured. Second, modern
policing cannot be complete without recourse to risk-averse
strategies for reducing crime, understanding the re-offending
records of ex-offenders and exposing potential risk re-offenders.
All of this can only be possible in a legal framework that
recognizes the place of “Criminal Record Registry” in law
enforcement and in combating crimes.

There are “across-the-board” benefits accruing from keeping
records of spent convictions as institutional “Central Criminal
Records” also allow employers, for instance, to routinely check the
criminal records of their employees or prospective employees, at
least with anti-discrimination mechanism built into the legal
framework to forestall abuses. In underscoring the importance of
criminal records in combating crime, the Bill proposes to establish
a “Central Criminal Records Registry at every state police command
… which shall keep and transmit all records to the Central Criminal
Records Registry”. It also provides that “the decisions of the
court in all criminal trials are transmitted to the Central
Criminal Records Registry within thirty days of judgment”.

Finally, it is vital that members of the National Assembly
endorse the proposed Bill to ensure stringent safeguards to protect
human rights and a positive legal framework for meaningful police
reform in Nigeria. It is also vital the Police and the Executive
branch of government work together with both arms of the National
Assembly to pass this bill, which will benefit every Nigerian. The
media and civil society must lead the charge in pushing for the
passage of the bill before the end of the legislative calendar of
the current National Assembly.

Abdul Mahmud and Okey Nwanguma are Police
Reform Advocates

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