Recently, the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) dismissed three officers linked to the killing of one Anthony Obodo, a resident of Port Harcourt. While the decision signals the Force’s commitment to administrative accountability, it also further reveals the worrying trend of police officers increasingly implicated in violations of citizens’ human rights.
In July 2026, NPF said it received 3,922 complaints from members of the public, and 38 officers were undergoing disciplinary procedures. The figures indicate the scale of complaints against the force and raise broader concerns about misconduct, discipline and whether existing systems are doing enough to keep erring officers in check.
Although the dismissal of the three officers shows that the force is willing to take action when its personnel are found to have acted outside the law, misconduct within the police is not limited to cases that end in dismissal or make national headlines.
Nigerian Police have a track record of human rights abuses. According to a survey conducted by NOIPolls, a research think tank in West Africa, the officers are the country’s worst violators of human rights, forcing Nigerians to protest against police brutality many times, but no significant change has been recorded.
A 2019 National Corruption Survey by the National Bureau of Statistics and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime identified the police officers as the public officials most likely to receive bribes, with 33 percent of Nigerians who interacted with them reporting bribery. The figure was lower than 46 percent in 2016, but revealed that bribery within the force remained a significant problem despite years of reforms and disciplinary actions.
Disciplinary action against officers is not uncommon. In July, the Police Service Commission dismissed four senior officers, demoted 10 and sanctioned 31 others for various offences. Also in April, the force dismissed an Assistant Superintendent of Police in Delta state after fatally shooting 28-year-old Mene Ogidi. The same pattern of abuse has also been documented within the Tiger Base police unit in Imo state, where allegations of unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention and extortion point to misconduct that extends beyond isolated encounters.
The Nigerian police already have rules and institutions designed to check misconduct. Citizens can report erring officers through the Complaint Response Unit, while internal disciplinary processes and other oversight bodies are expected to investigate allegations and impose sanctions. The bigger issue is whether these mechanisms are working as intended and whether the consequences for misconduct are strong enough to improve conduct across the force.
The persistence of such abuses is precisely why police reform has remained on Nigeria’s agenda for years. Successive governments have introduced policies, committees and new regulations aimed at making the force more professional and accountable, including the Nigeria Police Regulations (Amendment) 2026. Analysts say the dismissal of the three officers in Port Harcourt may show that misconduct can carry consequences. But the harder task is ensuring that accountability does not begin only after damage has been done.
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This article was produced as part of the Liberalist Centre’s Journalism for Liberty Fellowship, with funding from Liberty International.
