A Nigerian tweep shared the video below showing a police officer brutally assaulting a defenceless man who is lying on the ground, claiming it happened in Nigeria.
Black lifes matters look at how Nigeria police is killing us every day by day in the contraption call Nigeria #silentslaughter @realDonaldTrump @BorisJohnson @StateDept @UNICEF_Nigeria @UN @EUinNigeria @EU_Commission @SecPompeo pic.twitter.com/VfN0MaMUn9
— Uche Samson Amajuoyi (@UcheAmajuoyi) June 20, 2020
Background
Since COVID-19 hit Africa, Nigeria has so far recorded 21,371 confirmed cases, 533 deaths and 7,338 recoveries (see the latest here). Among the containment measures taken was imposing of lockdown in the country.
Nigerian police were reported to have killed 18 people during the first two weeks after the lockdown began on March 30. Amnesty International has been demanding for justice on the same and calling on the government to uphold human rights during the efforts to curb COVID-19.
Verification
A separation of the keyframes followed reverse image searches shows that the 44 seconds video is actually from Kenya.
This YouTube upload by Citizen TV dated April 6, 2018, reported on the incident, as seen in the screenshot below:
From the clip, the officer, and his victim who was identified as Brian Ogutu, can be heard speaking Swahili. At 0:35, the policeman can be heard saying “enda chini” which is Swahili for “go down.”
Swahili has official language status in Tanzania and Kenya and is also widely spoken in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Comoros Islands. It is also spoken by pockets of people in Burundi, Rwanda, Northern Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. The language is not native to Nigeria.
Also, note that the number plates on the vehicles in the clip are yellow. Nigerian license plates are generally white and the number itself is imprinted in blue.
Verdict
The video showing police brutality is an old one from Kenya and not Nigeria as purported in the claim, making the claim, FALSE.
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