‘Stop criminalising civil matters’ — IGP warns officers against interfering in land, marital cases

Usman Baba, the inspector-general of police (IGP), has warned police officers against interfering in land and matrimonial cases.

At a meeting with senior officers on Monday, Baba spoke about the menace of criminalising civil matters by police personnel.

The IGP added that his leadership would not tolerate the “continuous violation” of the force regulations, especially the social media policy.

“Another critical issue to deliberate upon at this meeting is the menace of criminalising civil matters by police officers,” he said.

“Since the commencement of my administration as the inspector-general of police, I have maintained a stand and rolled out several directives and correspondences to abreast you all on the need to streamline our investigations and caution officers and men against meddling with civil matters such as land cases, debt collection, matrimonial case and matters already pending in court.

“It is the same reason why I forbid transferring of cases from lower commands to higher ones indiscriminately,” he added.

The IGP  said 3,619 suspects were arrested for various crimes across the country between January and May.

“Three hundred and sixteen victims of kidnapping were rescued during the same period, while 486 assorted firearms consisting of AK-47 rifles and locally fabricated automatic weapons were recovered,” he said.

“Equally, 4,072 assorted calibres of live ammunition and other incriminating items linked to various major crimes were also recovered within the same period.”