What to do when stopped by the police in your car

The police can stop you at any time whilst you are driving your car. It could be that the police are following up a radio message concerning a car just stolen or snatched in your area. It could also happen that the description of your car coincidentally matches the description of the car earlier reported stolen.

It could also happen that the police are simply carrying out routine anti-crime checks or even traffic checks. At other times, it could simply be that the police have reasonable cause to suspect either your person or your car. Perhaps, a car similar to yours had been involved in a crime in the recent past or even suspected to have been involved in a reported ‘hit and run’ accident case. 

In either of these circumstances, the best thing to do is to gently pull up your car and park off the road- taking care to avoid causing traffic obstruction or other acts that may inconvenience other road users. You must not do anything that will further arouse the suspicion of the officer or suggest that you have the intention of escaping or committing further offence(s). If it is at night, turn on your inner light and show the officer that you have nothing to hide.

Keep your hands visibly on the steering and do nothing to suggest you are about to pull a weapon or conceal an incriminating item. It is also advisable to keep the volume of your car stereo low. It shows respect not to the officer as an individual but to the police as an institution of the state. 

The officer will most likely ask you to identify yourself, demand for your driver’s licence and request for other relevant particulars. This you must do. There are chances that the officer may allow you to proceed if all your papers are correct. If your papers are incorrect, this may provide the officer with further reason to conduct a more detailed search on either your vehicle or your person. In either case, you are expected to obey and comply fully as the officer is still clearly acting within the confines of the law.

During such search you are expected to remain calm and avoid comments or body language that suggests contempt, disrespect or outright antagonism. You are however free to make your observations and comments on the on-going operations. It is however advisable to limit such comments to only germane issues. Unnecessary side talks can be a source of distraction to both the officer and yourself. It could also complicate what ordinarily should have passed as a simple exercise.

Your best bet is to closely monitor the actions or inactions of the officer and report any perceived excesses or infractions of your right to his superiors— either at the local police station, the office of the CP Monitoring Unit, Command Provost Department or the Public Complaints Bureau situated at the Police Public Relations office closest to you.

bilymuse:

niger police no sabi grammer o , na egunje

Nigeria1@:

if i remember well. As long as you have your wazobia, you are ok with police stop. No wazobia, you are in trouble. Have they change or still the same. ??

cescky:

yes nice write up!!!

it will be practised when we reach civilization aka vision 2020

jumobi1:

yea. came back to Naija in 03 and the police stopped us for no reason. they tried to make me pay somethin wit his big gun but i refused. i almost argued wit him but my uncle was scared for me. he told me to chill. @ the end, the useless police let us go. the taxi guy let me know some people can die because of that.

cola:

some people make all noise about corruption and how bad Nigeria is
but they are not prepared to do the right thing themselves
they surrender to corruption even when they are told this is a good way to deal with a situation, they refuse to believe it's possible[/b]the only way they can see is [b]'egunje', 'wazobia', 'not possible now' and so on
every time people like you give egunje or wazobia to a police at a checkpoint[b]of course it means you're appeasing them to cover up something[/b]