Have you read the new Police Bill Buhari just signed into Law?

We are in Soup!

Let me summarize;

The problem began in Section 34 of the Bill where it stated that; a suspect may not be handcuffed, bound or subjected to restraint except “there is reasonable apprehension of violence or an attempt to escape."

This clause means that Nigerians are one step away from being treated like a convict, and only limiting factor is the subjective opinion of the officer in charge.

If the officer woke up on the wrong side of the bed and he/she decides that you're a criminal then Criminal you are.

Section 38 further empowers any police officer without the authority of a court order or an arrest warrant to arrest anyone they perceive as a criminal or deemed to have "committed an offense" against a Law in Nigeria.

As if that is not enough.

Section 49 takes the ridiculous empowerment of police impunity to the next level, empowering police officers to stop and search at random in any public place without any specified reason, parameters or conditions guiding such activity.

Section 52, subsection 3 states that if a suspect has been arrested (an innocent young man with an iPhone for example), the police is empowered to search him “If there are reasonable grounds for believing that he has on his person any stolen items.”

This bill uses passive, innocent-sounding words to enable all kinds of police atrocities against Nigerians, giving officers the power to be on-the-spot judge, jury & executioner based on nothing more than their famously well-educated and informed personal viewpoints and opinions.

Reiterated in Section 86 where yet again the police are given powers to arrest anyone, anywhere, at any time without recourse to any sort of legal process based on nothing more than whatever they feel like at that moment.

We are finished

If this is factual, then we are in deep blank hole

,

We are not ready to take back our lives.