Muyiwa Adejobi, the public relations officer of Nigeria Police Force, has said that a civilian has no right to retaliate if a police officer physically abuses them.

Adejobi said this in a response to a series of reactions to a video showing two men grappling the rifle of a police officer on Saturday.

“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,” Adejobi said in a short thread on Twitter.

“The disrespect is not to the policeman but to our nation and its a crime as enshrined in our criminal laws. So it’s not a case of what the policeman did, that led to it, but the reaction of the civilians who actually assaulted the police.

“If police assault a civilian, you report and actions will be taken to rebuke him, not to take the law into your hands. Let alone it’s a matter of checking of phones, which can be easily reported and addressed. Now they are kept in our 5-star hotel in Lagos and will be in court on Monday. Are you going to visit them or send them food, or appear in court to defend them?”

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Adejobi once said police officers had no right to check the phones of random civilians.

FIJ has reported a number of extortion, torture and abuse cases involving officers asking for phones and accusing young men of committing cybercrime.