Nigerians Troll Police Force Over Brutality, Want Rogue Officers Flushed Out

Nigerians have continued to lament alleged incessant brutality by police officers across the country, saying those appointed to secure the lives and properties of the citizenry were now the oppressors.

In a video posted by a twitter user (@SegunCyrus), on September 7, some police personnel in an unverified location in Ilorin were seen, purportedly, engaging in a physical tussle with a lady in their official patrol van.

Also, in a video that recently went viral on social media, two other policemen stopped two young men on a motorcycle, forcefully apprehended and whisked away.

Apparently, the video went viral after popular hip-hop rapper and human rights advocate, Ruggedman, shared it on Twitter on Tuesday.

In his tweet addressed to the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Ruggedman said, “Dear @PoliceNG @PoliceNG_CRU its so sad you seem to be fighting a losing (sic) battle with rogue officers in your force. Is this not kidnapping?”

The tweet quickly generated a lot of reactions as Nigerians recounted their ordeals with police operatives.

@seunkosh1 said, “Just why have you never made an example out of all this, just why? , not one single police officer has been jailed or sentenced to a months imprisonment, that’s why they keep doing the same thing to the youth every day, but one day na one-day Sha..”.

@neneOkposuogu said, “Nigeria doesn’t have a police force. It has a band of uniformed cultists & armed robbers legally empowered to prey on Nigerians”.

@STARSFLYZ1 said, “I am so disappointed in Nigerians. It’s always about talking&talking without action. If the people on that street swoop in and attack those criminals called police & burn their vehicle & lynch them I believe the survivors will learn their lesson the hard way. Protect yourselves”.

@feyiwonder said, “The battle is lost. The officers don’t even know the Constitution they are supposed to be upholding, they arrest for money not for breaking the law”.

@AnanwuM narrated his ordeal: “Early last month I was heading to ShopRite ilorin, this set of SARS officers along maraba blocked the bike I was on opening there car door and commanding me to enter (in the middle of the road) I refused and asked the bike man to clear and they should come meet me if they want.

“That got the attention of passersby and some igbo traders who were all eyes on them, after like 15mis the left me to go, just the thought of it while writing this makes me shiver, I asked my self what if I have foolishly entered that van but Thank God. Sars is a Menace #Endsars”.

Similarly, @Official_Maya2 said, “Same thing happened to my boyfriend and in osun state along ijebu jesa they stopped our commercial car of 6 passengers and asked my boyfriend to come down then I asked the reason why they said he looked suspicious, in short, they said we should pay 40k or else we will go to jail”.

The outbursts followed the spate of alleged harassments, extortion and extra-judicial killing of Nigerians across the country by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

A video posted by another twitter user @tafapisces, showed suspected security operatives publicly forcing a young to get in their truck. This happened in the late hours of Tuesday in Ilorin, a signpost at the end of the video indicated.

When THE WHISTLER contacted the Kwara State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Okasannmi Ajayi, he said he was unaware of such an act by the police under his command, noting that he had not seen the video.

When our correspondent sent the video to Ajayi via WhatsApp, he only replied: “I have seen the video”.

Efforts to get him to speak further on the video proved abortive as he read all the messages but failed to respond to them as of the time of filing this report.