By Collins Nnabuike Onah

I was attending to a client one day when one man hurriedly came into my Chamber with a stern face. He came with three ladies.

Although they looked so resplendent in their outfits, I noticed they were so upset. The eldest lady among them signaled the man to go on and brief me on what brought them exactly to my office without delay.

The man told me that his younger sister went to the nightclub with her friends to celebrate her birthday, but on getting home from the club, just as she was about to enter their house in the morning, some policemen swiftly stopped her. They asked her to provide iPhone 14 pro max with 256GB – Deep Purple, and a certain amount of money she stole from one man in the nightclub.

The man further explained that even before his younger sister could say a word to defend herself against the allegation, the policemen had already pulled off her bag from her and thoroughly searched her all over her body.

He said they equally pulled down her jean trouser in search of the items.

While he was still narrating the incident to me, one of the ladies phone rang, and she excused herself to answer the call. While answering the call, she was seriously panicking.

Shortly after she dropped the call, she told me the reason for the call. The police have transferred her sister to another police station, and she needs me to get her sister out of the police cell.

At this point, I charged them my professional fees for the services I would be rendering.

But a closer look at some legal principles reveals that a male Police officer can not search a woman suspected to have committed a crime under the Nigerian legal system.

If a search is to be conducted on a woman suspected to have committed a crime, under section 9 (3) ACJA and section 5 (2) ACJL, a Female Police Officer has to conduct the search. This provision of the Law is to safeguard the woman’s fundamental human right under section 34 (1) CFRN 1999.

However, it is noteworthy that there is no equivalent provision in the case of a man. So, a man should not go and make trouble in the instant of this pedigree.

I will not want to pretend that I do not know that some girls can be something else, but today, I will pass and encourage that you should never allow any male Police Officer to search you, no matter the nature of the crime against you.

I hope this meets you well.

Collins Nnabuike Onah, Esq. Abuja based Lawyer.