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On Wednesday, a now-deleted video went viral on Twitter and showed police officers allegedly assaulting a driver.
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The Twitter user @cashy0206, who posted the tweet, has now deleted his account.
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It’s not immediately clear why he has acted this way.
Eko Hot Blog reports that the Lagos State Police Command has reacted to an alleged assault incident involving some of its officers along Old Abeokuta Road, Agege, Lagos.
A Twitter user had posted a video on Wednesday, accusing police officers of asking to search a driver’s phone without evidence of a crime.
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The now-deleted video showed the driver of the vehicle being manhandled by policemen.
In a statement on Thursday, the police spokesperson in Lagos, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, said the Twitter user, who was a passenger of the driver, falsely accused officers of demanding to search their phones.
According to Hundeyin, the driver had driven against oncoming traffic and abandoned the car in the middle of the road to avoid arrest.
to search their phones. The police officers attempted to effect an arrest which the driver violently resisted. The vehicle was successfully towed to the station.
Had they been truly asked to surrender their phones for search, why then the need to run faraway 3/4 pic.twitter.com/TBuB598PJz
— SP Benjamin Hundeyin (@BenHundeyin) May 4, 2023
The police spokesperson noted that the suspects, Bamigbose Kabiru and Toheeb Bakare, running away warranted suspicion.
He added that the driver, who was seen in the deleted video being manhandled, was “violently” resisting arrest.
“On Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at about 1400hrs, the duo of Bamigbose Kabiru and Toheeb Bakare riding in a Lexus ES350 along Old Abeokuta Road, Agege ran into heavy traffic. Out of impatience, they diverted to the other side of the road, driving against oncoming traffic,” the statement reads.
“Upon sighting the police ahead, the driver switched off the ignition right in the middle of the road and ran away with the key. The other passenger too ran away. Thinking of how to get out of the mess, the passenger spinned a story, falsely accusing the officers of demanding to search their phones.
“The police officers attempted to effect an arrest which the driver violently resisted. The vehicle was successfully towed to the station.
“Had they been truly asked to surrender their phones for search, why then the need to run faraway.
“From their car? Running away after a traffic violation definitely raises suspicions.”
Meanwhile, Hundeyin revealed that incidents of assault are being investigated and anyone found culpable will be made to answer.
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“Lagos CP Idowu Owohunwa will not tolerate assault by his men or on his men,” he added.
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