If a Policeman Slaps a Civilian, the Civilian Cannot Retaliate, Says Force PRO

Muyiwa Adejobi, the public relations officer of Nigeria Police Force, has said that a civilian has no right to retaliate if a police officer physically abuses them.

Adejobi said this in a response to a series of reactions to a video showing two men grappling the rifle of a police officer on Saturday.

“Even if a policeman on uniform slaps a civilian, the civilian has no right to retaliate. More so, if he’s on uniform. It’s an act of disrespect to Nigeria to beat an officer on uniform,” Adejobi said in a short thread on Twitter.

“The disrespect is not to the policeman but to our nation and its a crime as enshrined in our criminal laws. So it’s not a case of what the policeman did, that led to it, but the reaction of the civilians who actually assaulted the police.

“If police assault a civilian, you report and actions will be taken to rebuke him, not to take the law into your hands. Let alone it’s a matter of checking of phones, which can be easily reported and addressed. Now they are kept in our 5-star hotel in Lagos and will be in court on Monday. Are you going to visit them or send them food, or appear in court to defend them?”

Adejobi once said police officers had no right to check the phones of random civilians.

FIJ has reported a number of extortion, torture and abuse cases involving officers asking for phones and accusing young men of committing cybercrime.