Can police stop and search you at will? What Nigerian law says

A viral video involving a young Nigerian who said he was stopped by police officers because he was travelling in a keke with two other young men carrying iPhones has reignited an old question: Can the police stop you, search you and inspect your phone simply because they suspect you are a fraudster?

According to the account in the video, the two other passengers were taken away after officers allegedly suspected them of being internet fraudsters because they had iPhones. The man who filmed the encounter said an officer later claimed that he had caught them with drugs, although he said there was no evidence presented to support the allegation.

He was reportedly about to be taken along with them before he called his father, who is a police officer.

The incident raises an important distinction between police powers and police discretion.

Can police stop and search anyone?

The police have lawful powers to stop, question and search people in certain circumstances. But that power is not unlimited.

The Police Act 2020 recognises police powers of stop and search, while Nigerian criminal procedure laws provide circumstances under which searches may be conducted. Those powers are designed to help officers investigate and prevent crime, not to give them unrestricted authority over everyone they encounter.

Legal analysis of Nigeria’s stop-and-search framework has similarly emphasised that reasonable suspicion is an important safeguard against arbitrary police action.

In other words, being young, travelling with friends, owning an expensive phone or looking suspicious to an officer does not, by itself, prove that a person has committed a crime.

This distinction is particularly important in Nigeria, where young people have historically complained of being profiled as “Yahoo boys” because of their phones, laptops, appearance or lifestyle.

Can police search your phone without a warrant?

This is where the issue becomes even more sensitive.

Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution protects the privacy of citizens, including their correspondence and telephone communications. That protection extends to the private information people keep and communicate through their devices.

The Cybercrimes Act also provides a specific legal framework for obtaining electronic evidence. Section 45 allows a law-enforcement officer to apply to a judge for a warrant to obtain electronic evidence. The warrant can authorise searches of persons, conveyances and electronic devices and can permit investigators to search data contained in a computer or device.

That means a police officer does not automatically acquire the right to scroll through someone’s WhatsApp chats, photographs, banking applications or other private information merely because the officer has stopped the person on the road.

Indeed, in Digital Rights Lawyers Initiative v. Nigerian Police Force, the Federal High Court was reported to have held that searching a person’s phone without a warrant violated the right to privacy.

There can be exceptions where another law provides lawful authority, where a person consents, or where specific circumstances justify a search. But the idea that police officers can search every phone they encounter at will is not supported by the constitutional framework.

What should you do during a police search?

The safest response is not to physically resist.

Remain calm and ask the officer why you are being stopped. You can politely ask for the legal basis for the search and whether the officer has a warrant.

If the officer demands your phone, you can calmly state that you do not consent to a search and ask whether there is a warrant or other lawful authority.

If your phone or another possession is taken, request a record or receipt where applicable.

Most importantly, do not attempt to fight, insult or obstruct the officer, even if you believe the search is unlawful. Your immediate safety matters.

If possible and safe, document the officer’s name, identification number, location, time and what happened. You can later contact a lawyer or make a formal complaint through the appropriate police or human-rights complaint channels.

The bigger problem: police harassment

The danger is not that police officers have no power to search. They do.

The danger is when a legitimate investigative power becomes a licence for intimidation, profiling, extortion or arbitrary detention.

A society cannot fight internet fraud by treating every young person with an iPhone as a criminal. Nor can the fight against crime justify inventing allegations after a person has been stopped.

The police need the power to investigate crime. Citizens, however, need protection from the abuse of that power.

That is the balance Nigerian law is supposed to provide: police authority to investigate genuine crime, alongside constitutional protection against arbitrary intrusion into citizens’ liberty and privacy.