Some operatives of the Nigeria Police Force attached to the Kwara State Command in a viral video have been seen hitting a young man with their guns.
It wad gathered that the incident occurred on Tuesday at the Post Office in Ilorin area of the state.
According to witnesses, the young man whose identity was yet to be ascertained was reportedly walking on the street with his girlfriend and on approaching a police checkpoint, the officers in the viral video grabbed him and accused him of being a fraudster, more commonly called “Yahoo boy.”
In the video seen on Wednesday, the officers who were wearing Jean trousers with a jacket with the inscription, “Police ASC KWS” were seen dragging the young man into their Hilux van. One of the officers was seen in the video hitting him with his AK-47 rifle.
A voice which was supposedly that of the man’s girlfriend was overheard crying and shouting “What did he do? What is his offence?”
Umar Afeez Olaide who shared the video on his X account (formerly Twitter), wrote: “As seen today in Ilorin at post office this guy was passing by with his girlfriend and they parked and was tagged as a yahoo boy without evidence @IlorinInfo @InsideIlorin_NG #nigeriapolice lacks proper training.”
Nigerians on X have reacted, saying that SARS has not ended in Kwara State.
@Boltzmann_ibile said that extortion of youths by police has become a daily thing without restraint.
He wrote: “That is how they do in Ilorin, they are in every corner extorting students, even at ShopRite, school gate, they harass and intimidate students. Sarz never ended in Ilorin in real sense.”
Meanwhile, the Force Police Public Relations Officer ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi has condemned the action of the officers as unprofessional assuring Nigerians that the Force Headquarters had directed the Kwara State Command to fish out officers involved and bring them to Abuja.
According to Adejobi, “I have asked the Kwara Command to fish them out and bring them to Abuja.”
“In most cases, we need to take charge of some peculiar cases like this, more so that the men involved are recalcitrant. I have spotted at least two offences in this video, and they need to explain to us,” he stated.
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