AE-FUNAI UNDERGRADUATES STUDENT AWARENESS AND PERCEPTION OF POLICE BRUTALITY IN NIGERIA

AE-FUNAI UNDERGRADUATES STUDENT AWARENESS AND PERCEPTION OF POLICE BRUTALITY IN NIGERIA

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The police are state personnel who are in charge of 'law enforcement and order maintenance' in society. To carry out these dual tasks, the police have the authority to use force, even violence. The use of force or violence by police is governed by national constitutions and statutes, international conventions and rules, police departmental instructions, and professional ethics. Despite these laws, the police in most nations employ force and brutality that exceeds the legal limitations.

It is a well-known fact that the cops are your buddy. In a country like Nigeria, however, the opposite is true. It is clear that the average public views the police officer negatively and does not consider him to be a friend (Omilana, 2019). Police officers around the world are governmental authorities tasked with enforcing the law and maintaining social order. When carrying out their duties, the police may be entitled to use reasonable force when necessary. The Federal Republic of Nigeria's constitution, the Police Act, international agreements, professional ethics, and other regulations control and constrain the use of force by police in carrying out their statutory tasks. Despite these regulations, the police in many societies resort to using extreme force beyond the limits permitted by law in carrying out their duties, grossly disregarding the rule of law and resorting to extra-judicial killings, torture, and subjecting civilians or citizens to all manner of inhumane and ill-treatment; unfortunately, these are the same citizens that they have previously sworn to protect (Segun, 2016).

The provision of security is one of the primary goals of any nation's government. The function is underlined in the Federal Republic of Nigeria's constitution of 1999, which states that "the security and wellbeing of the people shall be the fundamental aim of the government" (Segun, 2016). The government delegated the job of maintaining internal security to the Nigeria police in order to fulfill this role. The Nigerian police are mandated by law to prevent and detect crime, maintain peace and order, and enforce all laws and regulations. They are expected to carry out these responsibilities properly and successfully. With the country's high rate of insecurity, the question on everyone's mind is if the police accomplished these tasks as anticipated of them. The majority of individuals believe that the Nigerian police fall short of their performance criteria. They observe a toothless dog who can only bark and not bite. Odekunle (2014) claimed that there is no need to establish the Nigeria police's non-performance in the current situation. Rather, what is required is the identification of the fundamental deficiencies, issues, and impediments that are causing the scenario. The Nigerian police force is an integral aspect of the country's civil society. As a result, in addition to the myriad problems that have hampered their performance over the years, they have human problems that not only compound its material deficiencies, but also have a significant negative impact on its overall performance from one day to the next (Odekunle, 2014).

Police brutality, the use of torture, and other flagrant violations of human rights continue to be fundamental problems in the Nigeria Police Force, attracting public odium, opprobrium, and criticism (Amnesty International, 2015; Ogunode, 2015). Brutality is defined as one of the most extreme types of violence, with both psychological and physical consequences. It is sometimes regarded as an essential interrogation tool for acquiring strategic knowledge (Constanzo & Gerrity, 2019; Makwerere, Tafadzwa & Musorowegomo, 2016; Justice Project Pakistan, 2014).

Conventions, guidelines, and treaties are intended to guide the operations of the police as an institution at the national and international levels (James 2017). Despite statutory restrictions against police brutality and custodial misconduct, physical and excessive brutality has been reported as being frequent in the Nigerian Police Force, which is a key reason why most Nigerians regard the police force as an abysmal failure (Amnesty International, 2019). According to the Network for Police Reform in Nigeria, Nigerian police officers routinely carry out summary murders of people convicted or suspected of crimes; employ torture as a primary mode of inquiry; perpetrate rapes of both sexes; and engage in extortion at practically every chance. Ibrahim Coomasie, a former Inspector-General of Police, once accused the NPF of "barbaric treatment of Nigerians" (Premium Times, 2016), as noted in (Ogunode, 2015). For example, some female ex-detainees have reported sexual mistreatment by police personnel, including being raped and having pepper spray used on their genitals. Nigerian citizens are mistreated, mistreated, and brutalized in a variety of ways, including: beating, indiscriminate shooting, maiming and killing of citizens, unnecessary restraints such as handcuffs and leg chains, unnecessary use of firearms against suspects and innocent members of the public, torture of suspects in order to forcefully extract confessions, and extortion of gratification (Human Rights Watch, 2018).

Unnecessary and illegal use of guns by Nigerian police is a pervasive occurrence, not a few isolated incidents. During police operations, many people are killed illegally. In other situations, police shoot and murder motorists who refuse to pay bribes at checkpoints. Some are killed in the street because they are "armed robbers," as the police later claim; others are killed after arrest, supposedly for attempting to flee.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The Nigerian Police Force's (NPF) continued use of brutality is getting rather concerning. Nigerians have endured the disproportionate use of force and violence with muted rage and dismay. However, the outpouring of rage reached a boiling point, culminating in the October 2020 SARS protest after a slew of complaints from civilians, particularly adolescents, all of which fell on deaf ears.

There are numerous shortcomings and problems on the part of the police that contribute to its poor performance. Most Nigerians see police as a motley crew of lazy, inefficient, corrupt uniformed men and women who contribute to the commission of heinous crimes against the citizens they are paid to protect, such as mass killing, intimidation, rape, extrajudicial killings/summary execution, and other heinous crimes (Uhunmwuangho & Aluforo, 2017). According to Ikeji (2018), the current rise of violence in Nigeria's north is linked to the police brutality and extrajudicial assassination of Boko Haram's commander, "Mohammed Yusuf," in July 2009 in Borno State.

It is also typical for authorities to erroneously classify innocent people as armed robbers, while true criminals operate freely in society, doing what they do best. They fabricate postmortem results, and to make matters worse, persons, both criminals and non-criminals, disappear from their custody without explanation, and relatives of innocent victims face extortion.

According to Alemika (2019), police violence is a big issue because they are expected to be moral as law-enforcement officers. If the police, who were hired and paid for with the money of the people to guard and discover crimes, are themselves corrupt and abusive to innocent persons, particularly students at educational institutions, then society is at the mercy and grace of a very poorly managed and corrupt agency. This study was created with this setting in mind.

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