Resurfaced video falsely presented as recent evidence of police brutality in Nigeria

“Nigeria police would never learn,” reads the caption of an X post published on May 1, 2026, and reposted more than 2,600 times. 

The accompanying video shows a group of police officers confronting a woman on the side of a road. One officer slaps her, fires his weapon into the ground, while hurling insults and threatening to kill her.

A male voice in the background says, “Officer, don’t try that”, as he continues to lash out at the woman. 

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Screenshot of the misleading X post, taken on May 20, 2026

The video was also shared thousands of times in a Facebook post dated May 3, 2026.

Many comments under the X post accused the police of infringing on human rights, while others noted that the video was old.

"So much violence from policemen who are meant to protect citizens but cause them more harm than good. This is a disgrace to our security system, our police are the worst in Africa," one user wrote.

"I dont understand the Nigeria Police . What issues have they had with professionalism? If someone commits an arrestable offence, go ahead and  arrest instead of assaulting defenceless people (sic)," another commented.

Public scrutiny of police conduct in Nigeria intensified following the two-week EndSARS protests in October 2020, which called for an end to police brutality and the the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) (archived here). 

During the protests, armed security officials opened fire on protesters in Lagos. At least 10 people were killed, according to a report by Amnesty International (archived here).

Since assuming office as Nigeria’s inspector general of police in February 2026, Tunji Disu has said misconduct will no longer be tolerated among officers. He recently ordered the dismissal and prosecution of police officers who shot a bound suspect at close range in Delta state (archived here and here).

However, the footage of police officers harassing a woman is old.

Resurfacing clip

A reverse image search of keyframes extracted from the clip led to social media posts from media organisations containing screenshots from the video, published between January 21-22, 2022.

One such Facebook post by the BBC reported that an officer, identified as Sergeant Jude Ogudu, and four colleagues were arrested in Edo state(archived here).

"The Edo State Police Command has arrested Sergeant Jude Ogudu and four other police officers who were allegedly seen assaulting a woman in a viral video," the post reads in West African Pidgin English. "They are currently being held in detention at the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID), while the Command's X-Squad unit is investigating the incident."

The official Facebook account of the Nigeria Police Force confirmed the arrest, sharing an image of Ogudu and indicating that the incident occurred between December 13 and 15, 2021.(archived here). 

TheCable, a Nigerian news outlet, credited the footage to an X account called “@clefnite”, where the original video was posted on January 21, 2022 (archived here and here).

“I honestly do not know how these type of men get to become policemen. These actions are totally reprehensible and a disgrace to the @PoliceNG. I personally demand accountability for these actions,” the caption reads.

A comparison of the original video and the misleading clip shows that the footage matches.

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Screenshot comparing the misleading post (left) and the original footage, taken on May 20, 2026

Police declined to comment on the criminal case involving Ogudu.

However, posts and reports published in May 2022, as well as more recent ones shared in 2026, claim that he was killed in the line of duty several months after the assault video surfaced. AFP Fact Check could not independently verify this (archived here, here and here).

Find other debunks of claims related to the EndSARS protests here, here and here.