The Commissioner of Police for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ahmed Muhammed Sanusi, has warned Nigerians against allowing police officers to carry out random searches of their mobile phones, stressing that such actions are not backed by law.
Speaking during an interactive session with young people in Abuja, Sanusi explained that police personnel are not permitted to conduct indiscriminate phone searches. He said the directive was issued to address cases of misconduct and extortion involving some officers.
The FCT police chief encouraged residents to firmly but respectfully decline any unlawful request to inspect their phones. He also advised anyone who experiences harassment, intimidation, extortion, or other forms of police misconduct to report the incident at the nearest police station or through the complaint channels provided by the FCT Police Command.
According to Sanusi, the order was introduced because some officers have abused their powers by targeting citizens on the streets and searching their phones without legal justification.
“Don’t allow any police officers to search your phone and we’re saying this due to the abuse and extortive tendencies of some of our officers.
“It has been instructed that nobody should search any phone, especially when you just arrest somebody on the road and you start searching the person’s phone, suspecting that he is an internet fraudster.
“This does not negate the fact that phones are also being used to commit crime. But of course, before such a thing can happen, the person must have committed the crime, must have been properly arrested and brought to the station, then when trying to uncover some evidence, you can search to see whether the phone or other items are being used to perpetuate the crime.
“But for you to just stop anybody on the road and say bring your phone, let me search, is not legal.
“If any policeman stops you on the road, according to the instructions of the Inspector-General of Police, which we are bound to obey to the last of it, don’t open your phone, resist and ask other people to help you call the police. You will see our men there.”
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