No Police Officer Has The Right To Access or Search Your Phone

It's no more news that some
people in the Police uniform
go to the extent of
requesting for civilians
mobile phones and have
access to them but the real truth is this; it's illegal for a
Ploiceman to search your
phone. Too many Nigerians have
horror stories of Police
officers stopping them for
arbitrary searches, and then
invading their privacy by
insisting on going through their mobile phones. Again
and again, people keep
being forced at gun point to
submit their phones for
inspection. Officers go
through bank details, SMS, social media interactions
and all, in violation of
personal privacy. And till
now, Police authorities have
simply carried on like they
could not care.However, Abayomi
Shogunle, Officer in Charge
of the Police Complaint
Response Unit (CRU) has
tweeted that the Inspector
General of Police has sent out a circular to all police
commands banning the
“illegal search of mobile
phones”. In our opinion, if searching
citizen’s mobile phones is
already illegal, what is the
essence of a ban? Shouldn’t
the illegality of it just be
pointed out to the rank and file? But we won’t nitpick.
We are glad to see the IGP
take a stand for the rights of
citizens to privacy. We can
only hope that this will be
clearly communicated to officers on the streets
where the personal
violations take place on a
daily basis. The other
question is, will the police
comply? after all, citizens see them break other laws
with impunity everyday. For a long time, Nigerians
have asked if it's right for
police officer to search your
mobile phones during a
routing stop and search
exercise on the road. Now, the Lagos State Police PRO,
Dolap Badmus has shed
more light on the issue
saying it is wrong.
In her words, 'Your phone is
private, it's your private property because people do
alot of private stuffs on
their mobile phones so it's
wrong. Police officers have
no right to do that except
there is a reasonable ground to do so'.