WATCH: Police Inspector smashes woman’s phone, assaults her for filming his overzealous activities
A police officer has been caught on camera in the Dopemu area of Lagos on Thursday, slapping away a woman’s phone for recording his overzealous activities.
The officer, identified as Lawal Murtala, was allegedly assaulting an innocent passenger when the woman, Anne Bibi, attempted to film him.
Murtala promptly slapped away the phone, claiming it was against the law to film a police officer. The phone’s screen was badly damaged.
According to Anne, she was subsequently assaulted and detained at the police station, where she was also told to delete the video.
At the station, the officer, with the support of the Divisional Police Officer, would proceed to smash the phone severally.
Anne also said the DPO made a statement that the police officer could “do anything he wants as long as he’s on uniform.”
Unknown to Lawal, Anne had sent the videos and pictures to her sister through a messaging app, WhatsApp.
Anne recounted her experience at the police station on her social media:
“Inspector Lawal Murtala of the Dopemu division Lagos, Nigeria, beat me up today just because I recorded him beating up an innocent man and was dragged to the police station.
“I was detained for hours, and the video forcefully deleted of which unknowing to them, I had already forwarded one successfully to my sister via WhatsApp.
“Then my phone was smashed and seized. Imagine going to report an assault by a policeman and I get detained instead, saying a policeman can do whatever he likes and that videoing a policeman is an offence.”
“The DPO, a woman was in full support of the policeman, ordered that I get detained saying I wanted to video to post and she will not let that happen. I was detained from 2pm till 7pm,” she said.
Anne, who was left with bruises on her face and a swollen arm, decried the injustice and lamented that police officers who are meant to protect citizens “are the ones victimising us and this should change.”
“It is not just fair. We all should say no to police brutality,” she said.
It was not the first time a citizen would be assaulted by officers of the law for recording incidents on their mobile devices.
