The Nigeria Police Force says the lack of technology poses a critical challenge to the full adoption of intelligence-led policing as a national strategy in Nigeria.
The Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Force Intelligence Bureau, Solomon Arase, said this in Lagos on Tuesday during a one-day training workshop organised by a human rights organisation, Access to Justice.
Arase, who was represented by CSP Abraham Thomas, presented a paper titled, Principles of Effective Crime Investigation: When to Exercise Powers of Arrest And detention In Criminal Investigation.
He said, “Intelligence is vital to modern policing. However, intelligence-gathering is cost-intensive and technology-driven. For intelligence led-policing to be efficiently implemented, the acquisition of modern surveillance equipment like digital CCTV is inevitable.
“It also requires a well-maintained and well-guarded database immune from hacking, elitist, well-motivated, and well-trained field officers or analysts and above all, a huge budgetary support. The absence of these basic necessities poses a critical challenge to the full adoption of intelligence-led policing as a national policy strategy in Nigeria.”
Executive Director of the organisation, Joseph Otteh, said at the event themed, “Effective Implementation of the Lagos State Administration of Criminal Justice Law, 2011,” that according to a survey by his organisation, policemen in Lagos State are ignorant of the Lagos State Administration of Criminal Justice Law, 2011, which addressed detention and arrests of suspects.
He said it was due to this problem that the organisation deemed it necessary to hold a workshop for senior officers.
He said, “Provisions relating to the taking of confessional statements of suspects have remained grossly ignored by the police and unenforced by magistrates. Virtually all those interviewed – police officers, prison inmates and lawyers – were unanimous in saying that police officers do not make video recordings when obtaining statements from arrested persons, neither do they alternatively make sure that a lawyer is present before embarking on an interrogation or obtaining a statement from an arrested person.”
Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, said due to lack of technology, obtaining confessions from suspects was more common than solving cases scientifically in Nigeria.
He however maintained that confessional statements were not always sufficient to secure a conviction.
He added that many court cases lingered or were thrown out because accused persons had claimed that they were tortured or their statements were written for them by the police. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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