Victoria Alo, a student at Abdu Gusau Polytechnic in Zamfara State, has narrated how a mobile police officer hit her at a checkpoint along the Sokoto-Gusau highway.
In the first few seconds of a video posted on social media by Zagazola Makama, a security pundit, on Monday evening, the student was seen standing by the roadside with what seemed to be bloodstains on her clothes.
While narrating the incident via an audio recording, the student said the officer had threatened to either kill her or break her head because she refused to disclose her state of origin.
She revealed that she was on her way to Sokoto State for her National Identification Number (NIN) registration when a group of mobile police officers manning the highway stopped the vehicle she was in.
According to Alo, the officer who attacked her labelled her a prostitute because she could not provide her student identification card. She also said that the police officer accused her of prostitution despite having told him that she was a student.
While recalling the incident, she said: “I was travelling to Sokoto that afternoon for my NIN. [I decided to go] before we finished the semester to do my NIN so that I could use it for service. On getting to the checkpoint, they stopped our vehicle, and the driver stopped. I had my earphones on because I was watching a movie. He now came to my doorside and said, ‘Hello.’ He hit the door. And he was asking questions about my indigeneship. I told him I was coming from Talata Mafara, that I was a student, and that I was heading to Sokoto. Then I asked him why he wanted to know my indigene, considering that we don’t even know each other and he had no business asking me that. I told him that I was a student of Abdu Gusau Polytechnic.
“I did not even know that a lecturer from another school was inside the vehicle. He was the one who recorded the video. I came out of the vehicle, and he [the officer] said he would break my head. He asked for my ID card, and I said it had not been issued by the school. He asked for my NIN, and I told him that it was what I was travelling to Sokoto for.
“That was when he started calling me ‘Ashawo.’ He accused me of prostitution. Before he even finished saying that word, the lecturer stepped out of the vehicle too and confronted him. He asked that did the officer not hear when I said I was a student. Then the oga came and was begging me. He said we should go. I was about to enter the vehicle when this man put a stick on my face, and I said, ‘Please, remove your stick so that I can enter inside.’ Before I knew what was happening, he hit me intentionally because he already said he would either kill me or break my head.”
A follow-up post from the security expert reveals that the police officer who attacked the student had been identified as Iliya Gabriel.
“According to her, upon seeing the viral video on social media, the policemen visited the victim in Gusau, where they attempted to bribe her with N100,000 not to sue the police. The case has been reported to the police headquarters in Gusau,” Zangola wrote.
