RULAAC, NOPRIN demand action as Fagbemi’s Justice Ministry foot drags on gazetting updated Police Regulations

 Nigeria’s Justice Ministry has refused to gazette the updated police regulations eight months after critical stakeholders in police reform completed work on the document that aims to modernize the operations of the Nigeria Police Force.

 

Police Regulations is the legal framework that sets out the day-to-day running of the Police as an organisation.

 

Because the old regulations are archaic, discriminatory and designed to promote the interest of colonial masters, concerted efforts by the Nigeria Police Force, Ministry of Police Affairs, Police Service Commission, National Human Rights Commission, civil society organizations, legal practitioners, and other policymakers sought to modernize these regulations to align with constitutional principles, international human rights standards, evolving needs of Nigerian society; and the Police Act 2020.

 

The revised document was submitted to the Ministry of Justice in April 2024. But it remains in limbo, without any tangible action from officials.

 

At a press conference to mark this year’s National Human Rights Day, two civil society organizations – Rule of Law Accountability and Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) and Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) urged the Ministry of Justice to expedite work on gazetting the updated Police Regulations.

 

A statement signed by Okechukwu Nwanguma on behalf of RULAAC and Precious Osinaku for NOPRIN Foundation highlighted the significance of gazetting the Police Regulations in ensuring a strong rule of law, effective criminal justice system and public safety and security for all persons in the country.

 

They recalled how a multiprong approach with all stakeholders working collaboratively in the criminal justice system led to the passage of the Police Act 2020 after 16 years of advocacy.

 

They wondered whether the gazetting of the updated police regulations should also take that long, especially with the fact that the subsisting regulations are outdated and discriminatory. For instance, Section 4 recognises the defunct Gongola and Bendel states as part of the territorial entity of Nigeria.

 

Sections 42 and 52 require that a candidate for recruitment into the Force ‘shall be unmarried,’ a clear discrimination against women.

 

Also, Section 118 requires that a prospective female officer must not be pregnant in order to qualify for enlistment.

 

The subsisting regulations demanded female police personnel to apply before they could be permitted for marriage, with the suitor screened for criminal record.

 

In Section 127 of the old regulation, an unmarried officer who becomes pregnant while in service shall be dismissed and not to be admitted, except with the approval of the Inspector General of Police.

 

The activists said the highlighted sections of the old regulations are just a few of the provisions illustrating the anachronism of the subsisting Police Regulations and the imperative of the federal Ministry of Justice to ensure that the revised and updated Regulations is gazetted and becomes operational in accord with the Police Act 2020.