The spokesperson for the Delta State Police Command, SP Bright Edafe, has stated that police operatives have the right to search people’s pockets and bags without a warrant if there is reasonable suspicion.
Edafe made this claim in a post on X on Saturday, while sharing the arrest of a suspected thief caught with a firearm.
“Do the police have the right to search you randomly without a search warrant? The answer is yes; search you and not your houses or your phones. But to search you, your bag, and your pockets is allowed.
“This chap was standing at a club around 5am looking suspicious when operatives of RRS intercepted and searched him, and this gun was recovered. Listen to his reason for taking the gun to the club,” he wrote.
In an accompanying video, Edafe described how Rapid Response Squad agents on a visibility patrol around DBS Road, near Don and Master, intercepted a young guy carrying a suspicious suitcase.
He said, “While operatives of the Rapid Response Squad of the Delta State Police Command were on their visibility patrol around DBS Road, just by Don and Master, they saw this young man carrying a bag. He was sighted in a suspicious manner; he was intercepted and searched.
“When his bag was searched, this gun was found in his bag. This is the magazine, and these are the ammunitions that were recovered from him.”
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Edafe also stated that further investigation revealed that the suspect, identified as 39-year-old Bassey Udoh from Akwa Ibom, had been involved in stealing generators.
“Bassey Udoh did not only have this in his possession. In the course of our investigation, we discovered that he usually scales through the fence of people’s houses while they’re sleeping and steals their generator.
“At times use the gate to come out and/or also take it out through the fence. The time of their operation is usually between the hours of 4am and 5am,” Edafe added.
The suspect, who acknowledged being in Delta State for three years, confessed to breaking into nine residences to steal generators since starting the “business” two months ago.
“I’ve not entered more than nine people’s houses. Some people buy the generator for N40,000 or N35,000,” Udoh said.
Responding to questions about the gun, he claimed he was not using it for robbery but for showing off at a club.
“I was holding it; I did not use it to rob. It was for flexing at a club. I put it in my waist,” he said.
