The Inspector General of Police, Tunji Disu, has cautioned Nigerians against recording police officers while they perform their duties in public.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja, Disu urged Nigerians to recognise that police officers don’t invade their offices to record them while they are carrying out their duties.

The IGP, however, admitted that a Federal High Court judgment in Warri, Delta State, gave Nigerians the constitutional right to record police officers.

He said: “Can we come to your offices and record you in your offices? Can we record even in the court? We were discussing it yesterday and spoke about people coming to our offices with unsealed cameras.

“We checked the law and our officers came up with write-ups, citing a lot of authorities. The recent judgment on the recording of police officers became something of concern to us because the citizens started coming out with their phones to record police officers everywhere and this can be embarrassing.

“Some even went to restaurants and started recording police officers. Everywhere they see a police officer they start recording and this is very demoralising to us.

“We are doing very difficult jobs and we need all the concentration in the world to be able to do our jobs. We are not saying they can’t exercise their rights of recording officers in public places while doing their jobs but they should put restraint and not turn our police officers into content for their skit or anything.

“If you look at where we have our officers, they are dangerous areas thick in the forest, thick in the bushes and on the highways. In the middle of nowhere these officers will stay there morning and night to do their jobs of keeping other people safe.”