CHAPTER ONE
1.0        INTRODUCTION
1.1        BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY   
Nigeria as a political entity is bedeviled with a myriad of socio economic and political problems, which are inherently multifarious in nature (Ubeku, 1991). Some of these problems include political instability or uncertainty, corruption, poverty, moral decadence, and various forms of economic crimes such as currency trafficking, product adulteration and piracy among others (Musa, 1991).
The administration of justice refers to the maintenance of right within a political community by means of the physical force of the state. It is the state's application of the sanction of force to the rule of right (Garner, 2004). But in its broad sense, the administration of justice is involved in the exercise of every governmental function, be it legislative, executive or judicial. It is one of the vital functions of state, for the aim of state and government is the welfare and happiness of the citizens (Ewelukwa,
1980). In this regard, the organs involved in the administration of justice include the police, the legal profession, the court and the prisons.
It is a well-known fact that the prime object of the criminal law of which the police form an essential part is the protection of the public by the maintenance of law and order. To this end, it has been stated that the general purpose of the criminal law and the establishment of the police force, amongst others, is to forbid and prevent conducts that threaten harm to individuals and the public at large, as well as to subject to public control, persons whose conducts indicate that" they are disposed to commit crimes (American Law Institute's Model Penal Code, 1968). It includes the control of those who have manifested their dangerousness sufficiently enough to generate fear in the minds of reasonable members of the society. This is because every responsible society takes appropriate measures to protect lives and property of people living within its boundaries. This leads us to the concept of crime control which has been said to refer to a host of activities including all efforts designed to hold the volume of crime in effective check, to keep it from spreading, to restrict and prevent crime infection and continuation, to prevent crime from breaking and spreading to new areas, and to protect society against the activities of habitual and abnormal offenders (Ugwudike, 2002).