The Nigeria Police Force says policemen are duty-bound to submit themselves to civilians for scrutiny before they can proceed to search their cars or houses.
The Force gave the directive via its Twitter handle, @PoliceNG, on Thursday and urged people to make such a request in a polite manner.
The message was reinforced with the hash tag #AskThePolice.
“If an officer wants to search you in your house/car, he must first surrender himself for searching. This is the procedure. Ask politely. #AskThePolice,” the tweet read.
The snippet subsequently generated a lot of reactions in the social media with many Nigerians describing it as a tall dream.
They likened an attempt to search policemen to an invitation of harassment, torture and signing their own death warrants, especially if the cops were operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
Casting a doubt on the workability of the directive, a Twitter user, Ebenezer Oluwaniyi @Benoluwaniyi, wrote, “Who is deceiving who? You guys know yourselves well to know such can never be possible. If not, can someone ever request such from a SARS officer and will not be hit by the gun. You are wrong on this, please.”
Another commentator, Ikeemmanuelobinna, @obgalaxy, said, “200 slaps guaranteed” if a civilian asks a policeman to surrender himself for searching.
Another commentator, Olajumoke @MaryMaryk4u, while reacting to the post, said, “You could have been dead before completing the sentence.”
Miracle @MIRACLE 15271228 said anybody that makes such a move would dig their own graves.
A user, who identified himself as Lukman, @Iam_apolskils, said although it was better imagined confronting a policeman for searching, he urged Nigerians to give the Force the benefit of the doubt.
“It is not easy to confront an officer, especially these ugly ones called SARS. But my point is this, people are trying to get solution to it and we should support (them) especially with the online help desk. God bless Nigeria,” he tweeted.
Hatshepsut she-king, @lissabby000, who wrote in from Victoria Island, Lagos, said, “The proper thing to do is to train the officers again and not give us tips these same officers wouldn’t let us exercise. While being reformed, the citizens are updated on their rights.”
The Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Jimoh Moshood, on Friday confirmed the tweet while speaking with newsmen.
He, however, said the content was not in details, adding that it was misinterpreted by members of the public.
He said, “When a policeman wants to search premises, he must show what is in his pocket and his possession apart from his gun so that the man will not say he brought something to plant in his house.
“It is not that the man will search the policeman. That is what the tweet means. It was not expressed very well.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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