The spokesperson for the Delta State Police Command, SP Bright Edafe, has stated that police officers have the right to search people’s pockets and bags without a warrant.
Edafe stated this 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, 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 narrated how operatives of the Rapid Response Squad on visibility patrol around DBS Road, near Don and Master, intercepted a young man carrying a bag in a suspicious manner.
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.”
Edafe added 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 usuaully scale 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 are usually between the hours of 4am and 5am,” Edafe added.
The suspect, who admitted he had been in Delta State for three years, confessed to have entered about nine houses to steal generators since he started 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.
When asked about the gun, he claimed he was not using it for robbery but for showoff 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.
Watch video below:
𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭, 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐭𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐧
The spokesperson for the Delta State Police Command, SP Bright Edafe, has stated that police officers have the right to search people’s pockets and… pic.twitter.com/d8MvtbQj5U
— Punch Newspapers (@MobilePunch) August 23, 2025
