Chairman Alliance on Surviving Covid 19 and Beyond (ASCAB), Femi Falana (SAN) has countered the spokesperson of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi’s statement about policemen slapping a civilian.
The Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO) had earlier, said that;
“if a policeman should slap a ‘civilian’, the person has no right to retaliate. Even if a policeman on uniform slaps a civilian, the civilian has no right to retaliate. More so, if he’s on uniform, it’s an act of disrespect to Nigeria to beat an officer on uniform.
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The disrespect is not to the policeman but to our nation and it’s a crime as enshrined in our criminal laws.”
Reacting to the development, Falana in a statement on Monday, labelled Adejobi’s statement as:
“highly inciting and provocative statement which has given the misleading impression that the Nigeria Police Force has authorised its officers to slap citizens and subject them to other forms of torture without any challenge whatsoever.”
He then asked CSP Adejobi to withdraw the statement.
“If the statement is not withdrawn within the next 24 hours, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Usman Alkali Baba should not hesitate to replace Mr. Adejobi with another police officer who has unqualified respect for the fundamental rights of the Nigerian people,” Falana said.
The lawyer maintained that a policeman does not have any right to slap a civilian, hence any policeman caught assaulting a civilian risks 25 years imprisonment under the Anti Torture Act, 2017.
