The Public Relations Officer (PRO), Delta State Police Command, SP Bright Edafe, has said that police officers have the authority to search people’s pockets and bags without a warrant if there is reasonable suspicion.

Edafe disclosed this in a post on X on Saturday while announcing the arrest of a suspected thief found in possession of 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 a video that accompanied the post, Edafe explained how operatives of the Rapid Response Squad on visibility patrol around DBS Road, near Don and Master, intercepted a young man who was 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 further revealed that the suspect, identified as 39-year-old Bassey Udoh from Akwa Ibom, was linked to stealing generators in the state.

“Bassey Udoh did not only have this in his possession. In the course of our investigation, we discovered that he usually 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,” he added.

Udoh, who admitted he had been in Delta State for three years, confessed that he had burgled about nine houses to steal generators since he began 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,” he said.

On the firearm, the suspect claimed he was not using it for robbery but rather to show off at a nightclub.

“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. (Saturday Tribune)