Police officers who assaulted man to face disciplinary action

The police officers caught on camera assaulting a young Nigerian have been “identified” and will face disciplinary action, an official has said.

Benjamin Hundeyin, the spokesperson of the police in Lagos State, on Thursday gave the update via his Twitter handle.

“The officers reported today. They have been handed over to the Provost for disciplinary action, pending their transfer to FHQ Abuja for further disciplinary measures,” he wrote.

“The video clearly shows assault on the part of the officer.

“A testimony/statement from the victim would have helped a lot in establishing the phone search beyond reasonable doubt, like it did in previous cases where victims showed up or explained further on phone.”

One Chinedu had posted on Twitter that his friend was “harassed”by the police.

“Is there anything new under the sun?

My friend was harassed by the police today while he was on his way for a photo shoot,” he had posted alongside a video.

Responding to the video of the harassment via Twitter on Wednesday, Mr Hundeyin said that officers have been “identified” and will report to the headquarters Thursday.

Video

According to the male voice in the video, the police officer with the name tag, Opeyemi Kadiri, and his colleague had asked him to pull over and attempted to search his phone.

But he resisted saying that it was against the law.

“So, I was going for a job, this policeman stopped me, collected my phone and was searching me. But the Inspector-General of police said on Twitter that you should not search my phone. Why are you searching my phone?” he said.

The Force spokesperson had tweeted in July that “no policeman has the right to check one’s phone anywhere except the phone is an exhibit in a case under investigation.

“Any policeman who does that is not a policeman, but rather a scavenger.”

While he was filming, Mr Kadiri attempted to stop him saying “I will break this thing (phone).”