THE NIGERIAN POLICE ACT, 2020: EMERGING CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Abstract

The Nigerian Police Act, 2020 was enacted out of the desire to have an effective and modern police force that is based on the principles of accountability, transparency and protection of human rights in Nigeria. The Act repeals the erstwhile Nigerian Police Act, 2004 with its own novel provisions. This study therefore looked at some key issues as contained in the Act. The objective of of the study is to identify the challenges working against the implementation of the Act in Nigeria. The study adopted systems theory as its framework of analysis and made use of secondary data drawn mainly from journals, textbooks, newspaper reports and the Nigerian Police Act, 2020. Descriptive research design was employed for the study while content analysis was used to analyze the collected data. The study amongst others; found that the Act 2020 is a veritable tool which can be used to entrench transparency and efficiency in the Nigerian Police Force. The study also reveals that there is lack of awareness about the existence of the police Act2020 and that the Act bequeathed a lot of powers to the police. Consequently, the study recommends that the legislature and executive should from time to time review the activities of the police and that there is need for a nationwide sensitization about the provisions of the Act.