Today, we have a Police Force that we have been crying for. Today the Police are more civil to members of the public. They are more polite. They have shown that they are there to secure members of the public – Ikemefuna Okoye, Commissioner of Police, Ogun State
There would, of course, be a mixed reaction to these remarks of a police chief who seems not to have heard (or appears not to believe) that members of the Force are guilty of various aspects of corrupt activities levelled against them. There are reports of extra legal detentions and torture in the hands of the police. We also have reports of policemen colluding with armed robbers through renting of guns and ammunition to gangsters to unleash terror on the citizens. We also hear of some men in uniform used to settle scores among civilians after money has changed hands between one of the disputing parties and the police. If you have seen all this can you agree with the police sing – song that the Nigerian policeman is your friend? Can you agree with Mr. Ikemefuna Okoye that a new Force is emerging to meet the yearnings of Nigerians?
It would be unwise to answer these questions without also looking at the stories of the gallantry of some members of the Force. They speak indeed of a new police in the making, coming out from the old stereotype of men and officers who were hostile to the citizens they were paid to protect.
A man driving recently from Lagos to a state in the east across River Niger was met by policemen at a checkpoint. He had trouble with his car and was fixing a flat tire. He expected the worst, because of reports of extortion and outright robbery and brutality under such circumstances. But a big surprise awaited him. He wrote in a newspaper that the policemen came to his aid without him soliciting for assistance. He wondered if the policemen were from another planet after they had helped him and let him go without asking for a kobo or molesting him. He said he expected them to ask wetin you bring.
In another report, a traditional ruler from the Volta region of Ghana traveled to Nigeria by road, coming in through Seme border town. He arrived in a chauffeured luxury jeep. By his own account he and the driver would have been killed or manhandled by hoodlums as they drove along the Badagry Expressway trying to locate the abode of the chief’s daughter and husband. He said it was the intervention of a uniformed man which saved them. The officer took them to a hotel where they lodged, since the Ghanaian did not know the residence of his daughter he came to visit.
The third story about the gallantry of policemen was related by writer and newspaper columnist Banji Ojewale. He Identified two policemen Deputy Superintended of Police Joseph Imafidon and Sergeant Joseph Agbagba both under Ogun State Command who displayed uncommon valour to prove that the policemen is really your friend. When a student forgot her wallet containing her school fees on an okada, she thought it was lost. Her elder brother took the matter to the Iju Police Station where he met Imafidon and Agbagba.
Imafidon who was DPO and Agbagba his deputy, swung into action after taking the mandatory statement. They visited the home of the bike man and learnt he had traveled. They traced him to a joint at Ipokia, near Idiroko, several kilometers away, all at their personal expenses. Eventually they confiscated the suspect’s bike after he confessed to the theft. He struck a deal to be given some time to return the money. He did, dropping the cash with Imafidon who called the elder brother of the student on phone to come for the money. The Policemen requested no financial inducement from him to discharge their duties.
The case, after neighbors heard how it was resolved without the staple stigma of Police corruption, dereliction and compromise, boosted the image of the Force in Iju area. Those in the community came away with the lesson that somehow dead bones have a chance to live again!
Now I can also personally testify to the highly professional conduct of the Police in Ogun under Mr Ikemefuna Okoye, the Cmmissioner of Police. He and Muyiwa (Ire ooo) Adejobi, the PPRO have promptly acted to restore law and order and peace in Onibuku, Ota, when calls are made to them in time of distress or threat to the law and order. Same can be said of Mr Samuel Amos the DPO at Onipanu Police Station who combines humility and professionalism to serve the people of the area.
It is unfair not to admit that these reports suggest a renascent Police breaking away from a stone age of incivility that disconnected the Force from the people. If we have more Imafidons and Agbagbas in the field with more Adejobis, Amoses, Okoyes and Mohammed Abubakars (IGP) at the top who instill exemplary discipline and motivation, we shall hail the arrival of the Police Force Ikemefuna Okoye speaks of in the quote above.
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