Old video recycled as recent police assault incident in Nigeria

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Rejoice Taddy

Claim: A Facebook user shared a video suggesting it shows Nigerian police officers assaulting two men during a recent confrontation. 

Verdict: Misleading. The video is not recent. We traced the incident to 2022.

Full Text

Police brutality has for years remained a source of concern in Nigeria, with repeated reports of harassment, extortion, excessive force, and abuse by security personnel shaping public perception of law enforcement. Because cases like these often touch on justice, safety, and accountability, they rarely go unnoticed and almost always draw strong public attention and reaction.

A Facebook user @The Real Take shared a video (archived here) showing two police officers holding two men and assaulting them. The user suggested it was a recent incident.

The post caption reads, “Nigeria Police are on this one again. This is very disappointing. IGP must see this video, and something must be done.”

The 54-second video showed a chaotic scene between the officers and the two men, who appeared to exchange words. DUBAWA could hear one of the men ask, “Where is my phone? Give me my phone.”

What started as a verbal exchange soon escalated, as the men held onto the officers’ guns and struggled with them.

As of May 13, 2026, the post had gathered 389 likes, 140 comments, and 476 shares.

DUBAWA also traced the same post to several other accounts here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

One thing DUBAWA observed across the posts was a caption that reads: “Don’t say anything, just repost: Nigeria Police are on this one again. This is very disappointing. IGP must see this video, and something must be done. Nigeria is on fire.”

The repeated use of the same caption raised suspicion about the claim.

Considering the sensitivity of police brutality allegations and the potential for false claims to mislead the public, DUBAWA decided to investigate the video.

Verification 

DUBAWA started with frame-by-frame analysis of the video and conducted a reverse image search. We traced the video to a 2022 incident.

We found a report by The Sun that carried a screenshot from the video and confirmed the incident occurred in 2022, as reflected in the report’s date.

In the report, police spokesperson Muyiwa Adejobi said members of the public should report unwholesome encounters with police to the appropriate authorities rather than take the law into their own hands. He referenced Section 356 (2) of the Criminal Code Act of Southern Nigeria on assault.

He also said complaints can go through Police Public Relations Officers, the Complaint Response Unit, or official police social media channels. He added that assaults on law enforcement officers and attempts to disarm them constitute criminal offences.

We found a clearer version of the video on YouTube, published in 2022, along with other written reports that confirm when the incident happened. 

We conducted keyword searches for any news reports on a recent police assault, but no evidence did not link the video to a recent incident. 

Conclusion

DUBAWA’s finding proves that the Facebook video dates back to 2022 and is being recirculated with a misleading 2026 context.