Officers can search pockets, bags without warrant—Delta Police

The Delta State Police Command has said that police officers are legally permitted to search people’s pockets and bags without obtaining a warrant.

Bright Edafe, The Command’s spokesperson, Bright Edafe, disclosed this in a post on X on Saturday while announcing the arrest of a suspected thief found 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, pockets, is allowed,” Edafe wrote.

He explained that operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) intercepted a suspect in the early hours of the morning during a patrol.

“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 added.

In an accompanying video, Edafe narrated how the incident unfolded.

“When his bag was searched, this gun was found in his bag, this is the magazine and these are the ammunition that were recovered from him,” he said.

The suspect was later identified as 39-year-old Bassey Udoh from Akwa Ibom.

According to Edafe, investigations revealed that Udoh was involved in a series of generator thefts.

“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,” he stated.

Udoh, who admitted to being in Delta State for three years, confessed that he had stolen generators from about nine houses in the past two months.

“I’ve not entered more than nine people’s houses. Some people buy the generator for N40,000 or N35,000,” he confessed.

On the recovered firearm, Udoh claimed it was not intended for robbery.

“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.