The police in Edo State, South-south Nigeria, said they have arrested an operative seen assaulting a young woman in a viral video.
In a statement posted on X on Monday, the police spokesperson in Edo, Chidi Nwabuzor, identified the operative as Samuel Imakor, a sergeant attached to Iruekpen police station in the state.
The erring operative, Mr Nwabuzor said, was brought to the Commissioner of Police in the state, Funsho Adegboye, where he confessed to have slapped the woman, identified as Mercy Ajayi.
Justifying his action, the erring operative said the woman first slapped him in a vehicle while he was trying to arrest her on the allegation that she stole a human hair in a hotel.
The commissioner of police has ordered that the operative be made to face an administrative trial, the police spokesperson said.
Mr Nwabuzor said the police got to know about the assault through a post on X by a human rights activist Harrison Gwamnishu.
Mr Gwamnishu first posted the video on the microblogging platform on Sunday, with a call on the police authorities to take action against the operative.
In the 32-second clip, two operatives wielding guns could be seen shouting at the woman before one of them violently slapped her on the face.
“I will send you to the hospital and I will admit you,” the operative who slapped the woman shouted at her.
Hours after Mr Gwamnishu posted the clip, Police Complaint, a department created to check abuse by police operatives, reacted to it on X, saying that the incident was being investigated.
Surge in reported cases of police brutality
There has been a surge in reported cases of police brutality and extortion in Nigeria lately.
Last month, the police dismissed an operative, and have suspended two senior officers for allegedly “abducting” two Nigerians and extorting $3,000 from them. The money was recovered and returned to the victim.
The police authorities in Rivers State in 2023 arrested four operatives over an alleged assault on a traveller in the state.
In April same year, this newspaper reported how a police operative filmed slapping a motorist in Rivers State was demoted by the police.
In Delta State, a police officer, Ubi Ebiri, allegedly shot dead a young man for refusing to offer a N100 bribe, an action that triggered protest by some youths in the state.
Mr Ebiri was arrested and subsequently dismissed from service.
