NIGERIA POLICE FORCE AND CRIME CONTROL IN ABUJA MUNICIPAL AREA COUNCIL (AMAC), ABUJA, NIGERIA

This work takes a look at the Nigerian police force and crime control in Abuja Municipal Area Council, Abuja. The investigation was carried out among the police officers and residents of Abuja Municipal Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory. Five research questions and five objectives guided the study. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population consisted of police and residents in all the 10 political wards in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC). The sample size was made up of 300 respondents comprised of 100 police personnel and 200 residents who were civil servants, public servants, business men and women, but 276 responses were valid for data analysis. Both the simple random sampling technique and the purposive sampling technique were used to select the sample size. The percentage was used to analyze the bio-data of the respondents while the mean statistics was used to analyze the research questions. The results revealed among others that poverty, unemployment, society‘s emphasis on materialism and socio-economic hardship were the main factors responsible for high rate of crimes in AMAC. It was also revealed that the breaking of barriers in search of suspected illegally acquired properties, prevention, suppression of crimes and criminal activities were some of the roles of Nigeria Police in crime prevention. Inadequate funding, lack of patrol vehicles, lack of bullet proof, poor welfare package of the police, poor salary structure of the police and irregular promotions of rank and file of police officers reduce their efficiency in crime control and prevention. Armed robbery and house burglaries were common reported crimes in AMAC. The work recommends that, adequate police funding, patrol vehicles and bullet proofs, improved salary structure and welfare package of the police, improved working and living environment of the police men would solve the challenges confronting police in control and prevention of crime in Abuja Municipal Area Council. This work contributes to knowledge by way of identifying the fundamental causes of crime in AMAC and also adds to the few literatures on policing in AMAC.