EXERCISE OF POLICE PROSECUTORIAL POWERS UNDER THE POLICE ACT

Abstract

Prosecution of criminal cases is one of the responsibilities assigned to the police in Nigeria. The police power of prosecution is only subject to the overriding prosecution power of the Attorney-General of the Federation or the State. The subsisting police Act provide and require only police officers who are legal practitioners to prosecute cases in the courts. However, contrary to this requirement, there are large numbers of prosecution in the lower courts in Nigeria being handled by lay prosecutors. There is thus, a marriage between the “old and new orders” whereby in theory or paper, police officers who are qualified lawyers are prosecutors whereas in reality or in practice, it is otherwise. This lacuna is traced to insufficient number of qualified lawyers in the employ of the Nigeria Police Force. Consequent on the above, the authors argued that the Police Act appeared to have accommodated this situation by allowing police officers to prosecute before the courts those offences which non-qualified legal practitioners can prosecute criminal offences, even though the Act failed to identify or define “those offences which non-qualified legal practitioners in the employ of the Nigerian Police Force can prosecute.” The paper therefore maintained that accommodating non-qualified legal practitioners to prosecute criminal offences will help in decongesting police criminal dockets.