On December 19, 2022, Mr. Muhammad Bello Dabai, a reporter with Premier Radio in Kano was manhandled by policemen for filming an incident in which a man was being lynched. The policemen later forcefully bundled him into their service vehicle, insisting that they must take him to the police station for interrogation and detention.
Reports have it that Muhammad witnessed a scene in which an alleged thief was being pursued by a mob who wanted to lynch him when he attempted to exit Nassarawa Hospital in Kano, where the police had taken him for treatment.
With the incident happening in front of him, Muhammad began filming the incident on video as a journalist for his news beat when the police officials arrived to re-arrest the offender. But without provocation, one of the police officers confronted him to stop him, during which a fracas ensued in spite of identifying himself, with his official identity card which identifies him as a journalist.
In the ensuing fracas, Muhammad was brutalised, kicked, and slapped several times by the policemen on their way to the police station and forced to lie on the vehicle floor.
Premier Radio reported the incident to the Area Commander of the Metro Police Command to secure the reporter’s release.
