History of the Nigeria Police Force

History of the Nigeria Police Force

The Nigeria Police Force is the principal law enforcement agency in the country. Nigeria Police was first established in 1820. A 1200-member armed paramilitary Hausa Constabulary was set up. A similar Force was formed in Calabar in 1894 and named “The Niger Coast Constabulary” it was formed under the newly proclaimed Niger Coast Protectorate. In the north, the Royal Niger Company set up the Royal Niger Company Constabulary in 1888 with headquarters at Lokoja and The Lagos Police, which was established in 1896.

When in the early 1900s, the Northern and Southern Nigeria protectorates were declared, the Northern Nigeria Police was formed from a portion of the Constabulary of Royal Niger Company. The portion of the Constabulary of Niger Coast formed the Southern Nigeria Police.

In 1914, the different police forces were merged for “administrative convenience.” From that moment on, the police were administered from Lagos. Its main purpose was to stifle dissent to colonial rule. Asides from a few isolated cases, our Police was never actually an investigating force.

In the 1960s, under the First Republic, these forces were first regionalized and then nationalized. The NPF performed conventional police functions and was responsible for 

  • internal security safety in the general
  • penitentiary, immigration, and custom house institutions support
  • Executing military obligations in or outside the country

The British merged the Lagos colony and the southern and northern protectorates in 1913 and named the new colony Nigeria. The northern and southern regional police forces were later merged, in 1930, to form the colony’s first national police “The Nigeria Police Force” (NPF).

In late 1986, the NPF was reorganized nationwide into seven area commands, which superseded a command structure corresponding to each of the States of Nigeria. Each command was under a commissioner of police and was further divided into police provinces and divisions under local officers. NPF headquarters, which was also an area command, supervised and coordinated the other area commands. Later these Area Commands were grouped under Zone Commands as follows: Zone 1, Headquartered Kano, with Kano, Katsina, and Jigawa Commands Zone 2, Headquartered Lagos, with Lagos, and Ogun commands Zone 3, Headquartered Yola, with Adamawa, and Gombe Commands.

In mid-1989 another NPF reorganization was announced after the AFRC's acceptance of a report by Rear Admiral Murtala Nyako. In 1989 the Nigerian Police Force also created a Quick Intervention Force in each state, separate from the mobile police units, specifically to monitor political events and to quell unrest during the transition to civil rule. Each state unit of between 160 and 400 police was commanded by an assistant superintendent and equipped with vehicles, communications gear, weapons, and crowd control equipment, including cane shields, batons, and tear gas. A Federal Investigation Bureau (FIB) was to be set up as the successor to the Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation; three directorates were established for operations, administration, and logistics, each headed by a deputy inspector general.

In February 1989, Ibrahim Babangida abolished the Police Service Commission and established the Nigeria Police Council in its stead, under direct presidential control. The new council was chaired by the president; the chief of General Staff, the minister of internal affairs, and the police inspector general were members. As part of the government reorganization in September 1990, Alhajji Sumaila Gwarzo, formerly SSS director, was named to the new post of minister of state, police affairs.

 

Sections 214 to 216 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria provides for the Nigeria Police Force. Section 214 of the 1999 Constitution (As amended) categorically states that,

 "There shall be a Police Force for Nigeria, which shall be known as the Nigeria Police Force, and subject to the provisions of this section, no other police force shall be established for the Federation or any part thereof".

The Police Act, however, regulates the activities of the Police Force. Section 4 of the Police Act provides that,

 "The Police shall be employed for the prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, the preservation of law and order, the protection of life and property and the due enforcement of all laws and regulations with which they are directly charged"

Officers and men of the Force are deployed across the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja to fight crimes, criminality and ensure the maintenance of law-and-order vis-a-vis peaceful co-existence in the society.

The operational command and control of the Nigeria Police Force is under the Inspector General of Police. Section 215 (1) (a) of the Nigerian Constitution states that,

 "There shall be an Inspector-General of Police, who, subject to section 216(2) of this Constitution shall be appointed by the President on the advice of the Nigeria Police Council from among serving members of the Nigeria Police Force"

The Nigerian Police (NP) is designated by the 1999 constitution as the national police of Nigeria with exclusive jurisdiction throughout the country. Constitutional provision also exists, however, for the establishment of separate NPF branches "forming part of the armed forces of the Federation or for their protection of harbours, waterways, railways and airfields."