Stop and search is a common feature with the Nigerian Police and it is one experience that many Nigerians understand. Indeed, being stopped and searched by the Police is like a norm in Nigeria. And this has given rise to many controversial takes on whether the police have the power to search, the extent can they exercise the power and the rights of the citizen during stop and search.
It is a fact that the police have the power to stop and search based on the provisions of Section 49 of the Police Act 2020 that empowers Police officers to conduct searches for the purpose of finding evidence of a crime.
The Act allows the police to conduct certain types of searches; examination of a person’s body, looking through personal items belonging to an individual like car, phones or bags and examination of a person’s house or office.
The law allows the police to search any individual that they deem fit on the basis of what is termed reasonable suspicion that the person is a potential lead in the investigation of a crime and according to Section 54 of the Police Act, reasonable suspicion cannot be based on factors such as personal attributes including a person’s colour, age, hairstyle or manner of dressing, previous conviction for the possession of an unlawful article or stereotyped images of certain persons or groups as more likely to be committing offences.
It should be noted the Police do not require a search warrant to stop and search any person and in conducting a search on a person, there must be strict regard for decency and the right to dignity of the person being searched. Also, a Police officer can only search a person of his own gender.
But there are exceptions to the rule of same gender search based on the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 which allows officers may search persons of the opposite sex in the interest of justice, if it is impracticable for the search to be done by the same sex and when the urgency of the situation demands it;
Generally, the police do not require a warrant to search the belongings of a person but there are instances when a warrant would be required; the police would not require a warrant to search a car that is stopped while in transit in a public place but if they come to a person’s house or office, a warrant would be required.
Legally, items such as phones and laptops can only be searched with a warrant and a police officer conducting a stop and search must be in uniform or wear a visible Police ID card according to Section 50(4) of the Police Act 2020.
Section 55(1) of the Police Act 2020 empowers the Police to forcefully enter the premises of any person who refuses them entrance to conduct search and the only conditions within which law enforcement agencies can search a premises without warrant are when a person who is to be arrested escapes into the premises; a magistrate or justice of the peace orders that the search be conducted in his presence or a court makes an order for the release of an abducted or unlawfully detained person.
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