Corruption, harassment and injustice. Unlawful conduct of the Nigerian police towards civilians

Polemic Paper from the year 2017 in the subject Sociology - Law, Delinquency, Abnormal Behavior, grade: A.1, , language: English, abstract: It is quite regrettable that police personnel had for long dropped their core duties for the unusual. Corruption is synonymous with them. Civilians beget undue intimidation, harassment, extortion, injustice and jungle justice, molestation, wanton killing and all sorts of plagues from the police. The police have become irresponsible, extremely corrupt and a nuisance. They treat the poor differently from the rich. What is quite most shocking is the fact that all bids to sanitise the Nigerian Police Force have been futile. This makes one wonder whether the personnel have become above the law, or whether there are no practical measures to address the scourging issues from the police to civilians as well as the society as a whole. These and more have been attested by several studies, scholars and our respondents. Worried by the above issues, which constitute plagues to civilians and the society at a large, this paper rises to examine the plagues, and rouse the attention of the government, police authorities and all to halt these rising issues. It calls on the government and police authorities in particular to permanently check these issues through efficacious and operational legislations against any unethical and unprofessional acts of police personnel, sparing no defaulters. It also recommends that the Police Acts should be reviewed. The conflict theory of crime and the neo-Marxist political economy approach ground the study. The study concludes that police plagues are on the increase because the excesses of police personnel are yet to be checked appropriately and duly. The non-participant observation and intuition are the primary sources employed, while textual materials like journals, textbooks, monographs, serials, newspapers, magazines and the internet constitute the secondary sources.