Inspector-General of Police Tunji Disu has urged Nigerians to stop turning police officers into content for social media skits, saying the practice has become “very, very demoralising” for members of the force.
Disu made the appeal in Abuja during a meeting with the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, and members of the NBA executive committee, as both institutions sought ways to prevent recurring tensions between lawyers and police officers.
The Inspector-General said a recent court judgment concerning the recording of police officers had triggered concern within the force, with citizens subsequently using their phones to record officers in different locations.
“The recent judgement on recording of police officers, that one really jolted our officers,” Disu said, according to a video shared by TV Platinum.
He said the practice had gone beyond documenting police activities in public, with some Nigerians allegedly recording officers while they were in restaurants and other private settings.
“Everywhere you see a police man, start recording a police man. So this is something that was very, very demoralising to us,” he said.
Disu, however, acknowledged that Nigerians have the right to record police officers carrying out their duties in public. His objection, he said, was to the use of such footage to ridicule officers or turn them into material for entertainment.
“We are not saying they cannot exercise their rights of recording officers in the public places while doing their jobs,” he said.
“But they should put restraints and not turn our police officers to content for their skits or anything,” the police chief added.
Responding to the IGP, NBA President Badejo-Okusanya said the debate should distinguish between legitimate public recording of police work and an intrusion into officers’ privacy.
“Policemen sitting down somewhere eating and people are recording them and intruding on their privacy,” she said, arguing that the issue should also be considered from the perspective of police officers.
But the NBA president stressed that concerns about privacy should not weaken transparency in policing.
