Chapter one
Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
The rapid increase in crime rate in Nigeria has become a thorn in the flesh and the talk of the day. There is no day that pass in the country that we do not here of one crime or the other been committed by different set of people in the country, this is alarming. In Nigerian the most common issue we are facing is the terrorists’ attacks in tangible parts of the Northern region, Achumba 2013. For this reason, national crime threat has become a key issue for the Nigerian government and has moved huge allocation of the national budget to crime. The high rate of violent crimes like terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery and banditry, suicide bombing, religious killing, ethnic clashes, politically-motivated killing and a host of other forms of criminal activities in the country is rapidly becoming a conventional and naturalevent that characterized life in the nation. Gradually, Nigeria has ranked low in the Global Peace Index (GPI, 2012), which shows or defines a state that cannot be amended in terms of crime, insecurity, etc. In the same light, fellow researchers stressed that the issues of crime has taking a very powerful depthand coaxing the country’s political and economic managers and also the nation at large to a regretful situation, the loss of their loved ones, investment and absence of security in most facets of the state. Innocent bloods are being wasted as the day goes by and the show off of endured frustration by the citizens has remained a good reason to call for help.The terrorists attacks and killings is gradually becoming like it was during the Nigerian civil war. This big issue is gradually becoming out of hand and going beyond the strengths of the government of Nigerian state, while we Nigerians also see it as the government been incompetent and not able to produce positive result. Looking at the causes of this abnormality, Onifade opined that there is link between increasing ethnic hate, religious bigotry, political rivalry, and an increasing population of discontented citizens in the country who feet short-changed and having limited or no access to the common inheritance. This expresses the point that the primordial abilities of diverse manifestations of different ethnic militias and the pre-ponderant religious fundamentalism in places, given expression to by some areas of the dominant religious establishments in Nigeria have unavoidably increased or maximized the level and tendency various scholars pointed out same factors that are accountable for the sudden burst of crime in the country. They debated that the feedback of the Nigerian state to the crisis of the mass unemployment and fuel crisis has led to the worsening of the crime situation in Nigeria. Also, poverty, unemployment rejected revenue and low savings, which has subjected many retrenched people into an aggressive struggle for survival, high rate of inflation, political intolerance on the part of the ruling party as pointed out have contributed not in a small measure to the rate of crime in the country. Another major reason of government of any nation is the provision of anti-corruption agencies. The role is stressed in the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that “the crime and welfare of the people shall be the majorreason of existence of the government. In carrying out this duty, the government assigned the task of maintenance of internal crime to the Nigeria police. The Nigeria police are by law burdened with the role of hindering, stopping and detecting crime, preserving the peace of the nation and order and inflicting all laws and regulations. They are also looked on to perform these roles efficiently and productively. With the high rate of crime in the country today, a good number of the citizens are now of the opinion that the Nigeria police falls below their required standards of performance. They are seen as a toothless dog that can only bark but not bite. Researchers debated on the fact that there is no need to prove the non-performance of the Nigeria police in the present situation. Rather, the only thing that is needed is the identification of the major incompetence’s, challenges and constraints that are responsible for the situation. The Nigeria police are part and parcel of the civil society. For this reason, putting the challenges which have made their work incapable in resent times, they have human problems that not only encourage its material inadequacies, but are also of tremendous adverse import on its general performance from one day to the next. Poor funding for key growth of the force such as training, logistics, arms and ammunitions etc. and under-utilization of funds are tooth on the rim of gear of competent and productive police performance. Morality among the police is not a virtue. It was discussed that corruption and the crime of getting money from people among the police is a serious problem because they are expected to be moral and of good value as law enforcement agents. In the desire of officers to meet up with mate in the society they landed in slaughtering efficient and productive performance of duty on the edge of corruptions.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The inability of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to make sure crime rate is reduced, safety of life and property is assured and the continuous crime issues in the country is alarming. The sources of crime issues in the country are too numerous to mention and cannot be blamed on just one arm of the system. They change from the government to the police down to the people in the society. On the side of the police, there are numerous issues which stand as constraints responsible for its extremely poor performance. A good number of Nigerians have described the police as a crowd composed of lazy, incompetent, corrupt, uniformed men and women contributing to the perpetrating of crimes such as mass killing, intimidation, rape, extrajudicial killings/summary execution and other hateful and evil crimes against citizens they are paid to protect. The rapid and wide spread of violence in the northern part of Nigeria which was introduced by Boko Haram today is related with the police extra-judicial killing of the leader of the group. It is also common with the police to falsely label innocent people as armed robbers, while the real criminals are working freely in the society doing what they know to do best. They falsified post mortem result and to worsen the matter, people either criminals or none criminal disappear from there custody without good explanations and families of the innocent victims are faced with extortion. The Nigeria police Force (2008) in there annual report noted that the police is handicapped because of combination of factors that plagued them, among which are; lack of resources, poor government support, poor condition of service, lack of appropriate and adequate training and ill-equipped workforce. Coped with this are the issue of police extortion and corruption and other vices common among the police system which contributes to their lack of efficiency. Alemika (1999) posit that police corruption is a serious issue because they are expected to be moral as law-enforcement agents. If the police that were employed and taken care of with the people’s money to protect them and detect crimes for them are on their own corrupt and also a party to crimes, then the entire society is at the mercy and grace of the criminals. The above among numerous others contribute to the Police and the challenges of crime in the Nigerian state.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What is the effect of adoption of close circuit television by Nigerian police force crime management?
2. What is the effect of Nigerian Police force surveillance on crime management?
3. What are the major challenges to effective crime management by the Nigerian police force?
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The major aim of the study is to examine the Nigerian police and crime management in Nigeria. Other specific objectives of the study include;
1. To examine the effect of adoption of close circuit television by Nigerian police force crime management.
2. To examine the effect of Nigerian Police force surveillance on crime management.
3. To determine the major challenges to effective crime management by the Nigerian police force.
1.5 HYPOTHESIS
1. There is no significant effect of adoption of close circuit television by Nigerian police force crime management.
2. There is no significant effect of Nigerian Police force surveillance on crime management.
3. There is no significant of the major challenges to effective crime management by the Nigerian police force.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study would be of immense importance to the general public and the Nigeria police as it would highlight the role of the police in crime management. The study would also be of benefit to students, researchers and scholars who are interested in developing further studies on the subject
1.7 Scope of the Study
The study was delimited to the Nigerian Police Force and crime management in Nigeria using Uyo metropolis of AkwaIbom state as the study area.
1.8 Limitation of the Study
Difficulty in gathering materials especially relevant to the study was a challenge since the study is not common. This caused scarcity of relevant research materials from local papers. Hence, the researcher had to rely greatly on the foreign materials in order to put up this work.
Another challenge faced by the researcher was lack of fund and limited time for the undertaking and submission of this work.
1.8 Definition Of Terms
The researcher is of the opinion that there are some terms used in this research work that might not be so easy to understand by the reader especially these with little or no knowledge of police terms. Therefore, for the sake of convenience, some important terms are defined below.
1. POLICE: According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, the police refers to an organization whose job is to make people obey the law and to prevent and solve crime.
2. COMMUNITY POLICING: This means that the police should partner with residents, business owners, community leaders, government departments etcetera in solving and improving the quality of life of members of the community.
3. ORGANIZATION: According to John Gavs, organization is the relation of efforts and capacities of individuals and groups engaged upon a common task in such a way as to secure the desired objective with the least friction is done and those engaged in the enterprise.
4. CRIME: This refers to activities that involve breaking, the law
5. INVESTIGATION: This is the process by which the police carefully examine the facts of a situation especially crime to find out the truth about the crime as it happened.
6. POLICE STATION: This is a police office which is commanded by an officer not below the rank of sub-inspector.
7. POLICE POST: A police post is the lowest branch in the structure of police and is commanded by an officer of not below the rank of corporal.
8. REMUNERATION: An amount of money that is paid to a worker for the job done.
9. ARMS: These are weapons which be used by the police in fighting crime, example guns.
10. ON SPOT ASSESSEMENT: This is the ability of the police to go to the scene of an incident to determine how the incident occurred.
11. PROSECUTION: This is the process of trying to prove in a law court that somebody is guilty of a crime.
12. BEAT: The usually path followed by someone (police) on duty.
13. ARREST: This is the process of taking somebody into custody so as to answer chargers of crime.
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