The Nigeria Police authorities may have arrested the police officer, identified as Newton Isokpehi, caught in a viral video, threatening to kill anyone who filmed him while on duty, but it is not enough to change the culture of impunity and unprofessionalism within the Force.
This is according to the Executive Director of a rights group, the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Center, RULAAC, Comrade Okechukwu Nwanguma, who spoke in an exclusive chat with The News Chronicles correspondent in Awka.
The viral video of the police officer had provoked outrage across Nigeria, and police authorities had announced that he had been arrested and subjected to disciplinary processes.
Also, last week, a video surfaced, supposedly an apology, but in the clip the officer was seen explaining why he made the threat, insisting that recording police officers on duty makes them lose ‘morale’ to do their work.
Reacting to the development, the RULAAC boss, Nwanguma, observed that what Nigerians witnessed in the video was not merely the misconduct of one angry officer, but a glimpse into a dangerous institutional culture that still exists within segments of the police, which is a culture shaped by impunity, hostility to accountability, abuse of power, and a distorted understanding of the relationship between citizens and law enforcement.
He noted that the poor welfare, operational trauma, and the difficult conditions under which many police officers work, which the officer attributed his frustration to, are real and should not be dismissed lightly.
According to him, Nigerian police officers often operate under extremely harsh conditions, including inadequate salaries, poor barracks, insufficient insurance, long deployments, psychological stress, and inadequate support systems, which deserve urgent attention.
Nwanguma, however, noted that hardship does not justify threatening citizens with death for exercising their constitutional rights.
“In any democratic society, police officers are public servants, not rulers. Their powers are derived from the law and must remain subject to public scrutiny. The right of citizens to record police officers performing their duties in public spaces is not an act of hostility against the police. It is an important democratic safeguard against abuse and impunity.
“An officer who becomes enraged simply because he is being recorded while armed and exercising coercive authority raises legitimate concerns about what he fears public scrutiny might reveal.
“The incident also highlights a broader problem within policing in Nigeria: the persistence of a command-and-control mentality inherited from authoritarian eras. Too often, some officers still see citizens not as rights-bearing members of the public they are sworn to serve, but as subjects to be controlled through intimidation and fear,” he said.
Nwanguma noted that while disciplining officers who engage in misconduct is necessary, reform becomes meaningless without accountability, adding that comprehensive cultural and structural reform is required.
He maintained that focusing solely on punishment after public outrage is reactive and insufficient, as it addresses symptoms while leaving underlying institutional problems untouched.
In his words, “Recruitment into the police must prioritize integrity, emotional stability, professionalism, and respect for constitutional rights, not merely physical ability or patronage networks. Training must go beyond weapons handling and obedience to authority. Officers need sustained education in human rights, de-escalation techniques, ethics, conflict management, and democratic policing standards.
“Leadership within the police hierarchy also matters enormously. Senior officers who tolerate corruption, brutality, extortion, and abuse undermine every public promise of reform. Institutional culture is shaped from the top. If accountability is selective or cosmetic, junior officers quickly learn that impunity remains the true operating principle.
“At the same time, welfare reform cannot continue to be ignored. Officers who work under degrading and traumatic conditions are more likely to become frustrated, aggressive, cynical, and disconnected from the communities they police. Better welfare alone will not end abuse, but sustainable reform is impossible without addressing the living and working conditions of officers.”
The rights activist further revealed that the incident equally reinforces the urgent need for body-worn cameras and broader accountability technologies within the Nigeria Police Force.
He also advocated that the police institution must fundamentally redefine its relationship with citizens, adding that democratic policing cannot coexist with a mentality that treats accountability as hostility or transparency as provocation.
“The conversation generated by the Newton Isokpehi incident should therefore not end with one arrest or one apology. It should force a broader national reflection on the kind of police culture Nigeria wants to sustain and the kind of policing democracy requires.
“Culture changes not when one officer is punished, but when institutions consistently reward professionalism, enforce accountability, reject impunity, and embrace the principle that no one, including those entrusted with enforcing the law, is above the law,” Nwanguma posited.
