IN SHORT: Several Facebook posts claim that six police officers were arrested in Imo state for assaulting civilians with machetes. But the images attached to the posts are from 2023, not April 2025.
According to a Facebook post, six police officers are on trial for assaulting two men with machetes in Imo state.
The 26 April post includes an image of six men who appear to be police officers. It is captioned: “Orderly room trial for Six (6) police officers caught on camera,flogging and a$$aulting two men with machete in Imo State has commenced, the Imo state police command says and guess what? They are all from SE!”
Another similar post claims that the police officers were arrested for harassing a student.
A part of the post reads: “In a shocking incident in Imo State, six police officers have been arrested after threatening a student with a machete for refusing to unlock his phone. The officers involved are set to be dismissed immediately from the police force following this unacceptable act.”
“SE” refers to the south-eastern region of Nigeria, where Imo state is located.
The same claim can be found here, here, here, here and here. (Note: See more examples at the end of this report.)
But did six police officers go on trial in Imo state in April 2025? We checked.
Misleading images
Africa Check did a Google reverse image search on the images in the Facebook posts. The results showed that the images were not recent and had been online since 2023.
We also conducted a keyword search and found a report about the arrest of Imo state police officers, published by Premium Times. The officers were arrested after they were caught on camera assaulting two civilians with a machete.
In April 2023, the national police spokesperson Olumuyiwa Adejobi posted about the incident on X, corroborating the Premium Times report. Adejobi said that the six police officers were arrested for "flogging and assaulting" a man in Imo state. He also named the six officers who were arrested.
Six police officers were arrested in Imo state, but in April 2023, not 2025.
More examples of this claim can be found here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
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