The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has warned officers of the Nigeria Police Force to stay away from land matters and other civil cases.
In a video shared on the Force’s X handle on Thursday, Egbetokun said officers have no business interfering in land recovery issues or acting as enforcers for private interests. He stressed that any officer caught will face sanctions.
He said, “Let me reiterate without ambiguity, the Nigeria Police Force is not and will never become an enforcer for private interests. Officers have no business escorting parties for land recovery business, disrupting legally existing occupations, or meddling in civil cases without a demonstrable criminal element. Every such incident erodes the neutrality of the Force and opens us up to disrepute. The line must be clear and any officer who crosses it must face disciplinary consequences.”
The police chief also unveiled a new nationwide training programme on the use of the Criminal Database System. He described it as the “nervous system of 21st century Nigerian policing” and said it would mark a shift from reactive policing to intelligence-driven operations.
“This training is more than an exercise. It is a declaration that the NPF has stepped into a new era. Without data, there is no memory. Without memory, there is no justice. But with data, there is no hiding place for criminals,” he said during the launch in Abuja.
Egbetokun noted that poor record-keeping had long undermined policing in Nigeria, with missing case files and weak intelligence damaging public trust.
“For too long, Nigerian policing has been limited by weak records, scattered files, and fragmented intelligence. That era ends today. With the support of the Federal Government and our partners, we are building a system where every arrest is recorded, every case is documented, and every officer is accountable. No case will vanish into forgotten files. No conviction will disappear into silence,” he added.
The IGP assured Nigerians that the new system will track cases from start to finish and strengthen accountability within the Force. He said officers undergoing training would become custodians of national crime data across divisional, zonal, and state levels.
“Every case you enter, every record you preserve, every link you verify, will strengthen justice in our nation. You are not merely handling files; you are safeguarding the future,” he told the trainees.
Egbetokun also said the database will link Nigeria’s policing efforts with international crime records, including INTERPOL and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, to ensure criminals cannot escape abroad.
“Through integration with INTERPOL, the African Union Border Programme, and UNODC frameworks in West Africa, we are ensuring that criminal offenders in Nigeria will no longer find sanctuary abroad. When a trafficker is convicted in Nigeria, the world must know. When a weapon is seized at our borders, its trail must echo across continents,” he said.
