THE Police in Kogi say four officers seen in a viral video are now in custody over assault and extortion of N25,000 from some passengers in the state.
Kogi State Police Public Relations Officer William Ovye Aya made this known in a statement, noting that investigations had commenced into the incident.
“The Commissioner of Police, Kogi State Police Command, Idrisu Dauda Dabban while condemning the incident, noted that the Police officers have been identified and detained at the State Criminal Investigations Department,” the statement read.
The Police officers were identified as ASP Isah Barnabas, Inspector Ifediegwu Godwin, Sgt Emmanuel Ochima and CPL Umameh Mathias.
Ovya said the Police personnel were attached to Adogo Division. They were on patrol duty along Adogo-Okene Road in Kogi State before reportedly extorting the sum of N25,000 from a traveller. Another passenger was physically assaulted by one of the men in uniform.
“The Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) has been issued an official query while the three (3) other junior officers are currently undergoing orderly room trial (Police internal disciplinary actions),” the statement further read.
The command noted that any of the officers found wanting in the investigations would be dealt with accordingly.
The viral video seen by The ICIR showed how a male officer holding a rifle and dressed in Police camouflage slapped a passenger of a bus.
In the video, the recorder, who narrated the incident, said the passenger was slapped by the officer for questioning his threat to shoot all passengers in the bus.
“Look at what Nigerian Police is doing to the citizen of this country. They forced one of our passengers to withdraw money from the ATM, all the drivers parked to say this is not right but he slapped one of the passengers,” the recorder said.
He also said that the officer threatened that “blood will flow” if the passengers did not heed his demands.
The incident happened as many Nigerians are set to commemorate one year anniversary of #ENDSARS protests in the country.
The #ENDSARS protest was held across several states in Nigeria to stand against police brutality, highhandedness and extra-judicial killings.
Despite the relevance and the prominence of the protests, Police officers are still killing Nigerians and perpetrating many other cases of brutality.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94