The Missing 24-Hour Law That Doesn’t Exist
Public Outrage Versus Legal Reality
WHEN police hesitate after a missing-person report, outrage follows quickly. Families feel abandoned. The public assumes incompetence. Yet policing is not driven by emotions—it is driven by thresholds.
Understanding those thresholds explains why police respond the way they do.
The Myth of the 24-Hour Rule
The belief that police are legally bound to wait 24 hours before acting is a myth imported from pop culture and misinformation. Nigerian law recognises immediate reporting.
What exists instead is an operational guideline, shaped by decades of patterns showing that most early reports involve voluntary absence.
Probability Shapes Policing
Policing is risk management. Officers assess probability before deploying scarce resources. Statistics show that a large percentage of reported disappearances resolve within the first day.
Treating every case as a crime from minute one would paralyse the system.
Legal Thresholds for Criminal Classification
Before police can legally open an abduction or disappearance file, there must be something more than absence. There must be indicators of criminal interference.
Without such indicators, police questioning is not dismissal—it is investigation.
When Delay Becomes Dereliction
Delay is unacceptable when risk is evident. The law is clear: vulnerability overrides probability.
Children, sick persons, victims of threats, or sudden unexplained disappearances require immediate action, regardless of time elapsed.
In such cases, refusal to act may itself amount to misconduct.
Communication Is the Missing Link
Most disputes between citizens and police stem from poor communication. Families arrive distressed, shouting, or withholding details. Officers respond defensively.
Facts—not volume—trigger action.
The Citizen’s Power
Citizens are not powerless. You can insist on a formal report, request a station diary entry, escalate to divisional officers, or involve civil society if danger is evident.
The law does not favour silence when life is at risk.
