The Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, on Thursday warned officers against involvement in land related issues.
Arase, who disclosed this while talking to officers and men of the Edo State Police Command during a tour of inspection of the command in Benin, the state capital, lamented situations where policemen wade into land matters, which he noted could subject the police to bad names.
While pointing out that only civil courts, rather than the police, have the constitutional right to allocate land, Arase said that the police could adopt alternative dispute resolution methods when there are clear indications that civil transactions could degenerate into criminal cases.
He said, “One of the issues that I have had to tackle is the incidence of people dabbling into land matters. The police do not have the constitutional power to allocate land to anybody; they cannot do that. The only people that have the right to do that is the civil court.
“So, you people must be able to draw the thin line between what is criminal, what is civil and what is commercial because whenever you dabble into civil and commercial issues, you attract civil litigation to the Nigeria Police Force. And when you do that, you have to take garnishee orders.”
The IGP advised officers to uphold the principles of human rights as provided in the 1999 Constitution stressing that he is a strong advocate of intelligence-led policing as well as human rights approach to policing.
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