The Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Mr Mohammed Adamu, has restricted operatives of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, on the usage of the social media with a ban on police personnel from using pictures of themselves while dressed in police uniforms on their FaceBook, Twitter handles, WhatsApp or Instagram pages.

The Police chief also banned police personnel from making, sharing or commenting on any post that ridicules, maligns or disrespects any race, gender, ethnicity, tribe, religion or nationality as well as making controversial discussions bordering on politics and religion.

The IGP in a statement dated June 9th, 2020 warned that he is giving all police personnel in the country a grace of 30 days from June 10th for all operatives in the force to comply with the new Social Media Policy, SMP of the NPF by removing their pictures, videos in police uniforms, logos and insignias from their personal social media handles.

The statement which was personally signed by the IGP as sighted by Vanguard was also addressed to all Deputy Inspector General of Police, Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Commissioners of Police and head of all respective police units in the country

According to the statement, the policy is in appreciation of the need to safeguard the cooperate image of the force and uphold ethical standards to regulate the activities of all officers and men of the force in relation to the engagement of social media platforms.

Some sections of the policy according to the statement, states that all police personnel except the IGP, Zonal Command AIGs, State Command CPs, the force PPRO, Zonal and State Command PPROs, PPROs of police units and the officer in charge of the Complaint Response Unit, CRU, are prohibited from identifying themselves as police officers on their social media accounts.