He had thought he was carrying
out a civic responsibility trying
to fight what he perceived as an
abuse of office by some
policemen at a checkpoint. But
Gregory Ekene Muonyililo, a
medical worker with a
pharmaceutical company in
Amuwo Odofin, Lagos, never
knew he was walking into
trouble.
Muonyililo, acting against the
backdrop of the video
recording of a female corporal
as she was allegedly demanding
N100 bribe and a male sergeant
who was also exposed for
asking for N25,000 bribe, had
on Monday attempted to
record on tape a similar act in
his locality.
As he came out of his office on
his way to lunch, he had sighted
some policemen on duty who
were allegedly harassing a
commercial motorcyclist. He
thought they were trying to
extort money from the
motorcyclist and in a moment,
he brought out his mobile
phone to use it to videos the
incident.
But THISDAY gathered that the
policemen, who were attached
to the Area E Command, were
trying to arrest the yet-to-be
identified commercial
motorcyclist for violating the
Lagos State traffic law that
restricted the operations of
commercial motorcyclists on
475 out of the 9,100 roads in
the state.
Speaking to THISDAY,
Muonyililo 's brother, Onyeka,
said he was arrested after he
attempted to video some
policemen who were allegedly
harassing a commercial
motorcyclist.
He said: "Apparently, the
policemen set up a checkpoint
in front of his office yesterday
(on Monday) and were
harassing motorcyclists. He
went outside to get something
and when he saw it, he started
videoing it.
"Although he should have been
more discreet, he wasn’t and
they saw him and became
agitated. They collected his
phone from him and after a few
words were exchanged, left.
"They went back to their duty
post with his phone and my
brother went back to work.
When they later came back
looking for him around 4pm, he
thought it was to give him back
his phone but to his surprise,
they told him to follow them to
their station.
"From Amuwo Odofin, they
took him all the way to the
Special Anti-robbery Squad
(SARS), Ikeja, and he was
detained and slept there."
He however said efforts were
being made to ensure his
release from detention, adding
that the police had said they
would charge him to court.
When contacted, the state
Police Public Relations Officer,
Ngozi Braide, a Deputy
Superintendent of Police (DSP),
debunked claims that the
policemen were demanding
bribe from the commercial
motorcyclist.
She also debunked claims that
the victim was taken to SARS,
saying that he was taken to the
X-Squad department of the
state command for
interrogation.
She said: "I don't like it when
people try to frame the police. I
spoke to the man who was
arrested and he never told me
that the policemen were asking
for bribe from the commercial
motorcyclist they were trying to
arrest.
"What he told me was that he
did not like the way the
policemen were trying to arrest
the motorcyclist and we now
asked him what better way
should have been employed
and he kept quiet.
"Since this issue of video
started, people would video and
then transcribe and then send it
out to the public through the
Internet to different social
media as part of efforts to paint
the police black."
When asked if the suspect
would be charged to court, she
said investigations were still
ongoing and the outcome of the
investigations would determine
what next step the police would
take.
When the issue was raised with
the state Commissioner of
Police, Umar Manko, at an
event yesterday, he said he
would look into the matter once
he was back to the office.
He said: "There are questions
you should ask first. Was the
motorcycle rider right in
disobeying state government
laws? Were the policemen
wrong in doing their job?"
When asked if it was a crime for
a citizen to take pictures of
policemen on duty, Manko
neither debunked or affirmed
it. Rather, he asked why the
suspect should take pictures of
policemen who were carrying
out their legal duties.

Source: www.thisdaylive.com/articles/man-arrested-for-attempting-to-video-policemen-on-duty/157478/

Are they allergic to cameras? The man can claim to have been filming them just for fun. No case there.

M sure they were doing something bad cos if they were really trying to enforce the law,they should be happy someone is trying to showing their effort to the world.