The Oyo State Police has detained and assaulted some ladies in the state after they were found filming police officers at a routine checkpoint.
ENigeria Newspaper, while gathering this from a Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FJI), learnt that the ladies, who were staff of Onelife Initiative for Human Development, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to youths, was on their way to a certain destination when the police stopped the Bolt car they that they were in.
The ladies, according to reports, were headed to a community for an outreach programme that the initiative company organised.
While the Bolt driver stopped, he was asked for his papers. Upon presenting them, he was told the papers were incomplete and had to follow them to the station. Reports show that the issue escalated when the police further insisted that all occupants of the car were to follow them to their station.
One of the ladies, namely Ajefo, who spoke to FIJ said, “We told them that we had no business going with them to the station, as we did not own the car or know the driver. All we did was order a ride on Bolt.
“The Bolt driver had just gone past VCJ when the police stopped him and said that one of us should come down from the front seat and go to the back so that they could take us and the vehicle to the station.”
“We had our roll-up banners and materials for the programme we were going for, but they insisted on taking us. One of us then began to record the audio, and the police dragged her phone.
“They also dragged me and broke my nails. In the end, they seized two of our phones for recording audio and videos.”
Investigations after their moving all ladies to their station found out that Yemisi Opalola, the divisional police officer of the station, defended the police’s actions and condemned the filming by the ladies.
“Why should they be recording them when they are doing the right thing?” she asked this reporter.
“Why must they record? Yesterday, somebody assaulted my officer, and I arrested him. I will charge him tomorrow”, she was quoted saying.
ENigeria Newspaper, however, gathered that while the assaulted ladies were later released, they were coerced into deleting all audios and videos from the scene.
Ruling of filming police officers
The Oyo incident is particularly disturbing given that a recent court judgement now allows filming police officers while on duty. Last month, a Federal High Court sitting in Warri, Delta State, has affirmed the constitutional rights of Nigerians to record officers conducting stop-and-search operations in public spaces.
Additionally, the judge insisted that “police officers must wear visible name tags, display their force numbers, and refrain from harassing, intimidating, arresting, or confiscating devices from citizens who record their actions.”
