A STUDY OF THE NIGERIAN POLICE AS LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY IN NIGERIA: A CASE STUDY OF AWKA, ANAMBRA STATE

ABSTRACT
There has been a rising concern on the security of the country. This project is focused on studying the Nigeria police as law enforcement agency in Awka, Anambra state. The study made use of both secondary and primary data. And the research instrument used was the questionnaire Administered to a sample size of 100 respondents. From the test result of hypothesis one, the study discovered that inadequate training does not significantly contribute to ineffective crime control by the law enforcement agencies in Nigeria and hypothesis two shows that the effort of the law enforcement agents in creating a safer Nigeria is greatly hampered by unavailability of modern crime gadgets.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The relationship between police and citizens must be informed between ethical and professional principles that allow for the effectiveness of their function. One of the challenges to the community police units is to maintain peace and. When Law is violated, crime has been committed. The study seeks to focus on the law Enforcement Agency (Nigeria Police Force) in crime control and prevention. The law enforcement agency in real sense of the term according to Iwarime-Jaja (1991: 74), refers to criminal justice agency ( federal, state or local) which perform the principal functions of prevention, and apprehension of alledged offenders. By enforcement of the law Nigeria Police Force reflect the ideological interest and priority desired by the controllers of the state as observable in intractable competitions.

Throughout the length and breadth of our nation Thompson (1986), posted that innocent citizens are gripped with fear of armed men, hoodlums, and vagabonds who perpetrate their evil with reckless abandon.
Our society has ever since been witnessing an unprecedented upsurge of criminal activities ranging from conventional, victimless to white-collar crime, especially “pen-robbery” which is now almost institutionalized. Any nation plagued with this magnitude of social problem which people sign as they pass by make comments like it’stoo bad, will no doubt look for solutions. It is on this basis that Nigeria Police Force has come to stay.

According to Ogunleye (1976:250, duties of the police are defined in section 4 of the4 police Act as “the prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, the preservation of law and order, the regrettable, it is only the latter that law easily punishes because of their vulnerability whereas the former is let go with impunity.
Up till now the public fails to acknowledge the fact that the role of the police in our society is the defence of the right and property of the bourgeois, consequently, the police has been singled out as escape goat for all the ill of the society. It is from the context of the coprrupt society we all belong that allegation of inefficiency and corruption consequently levelled against the Nigeria police be viewed.