What informed your journey into the Nigerian Police Force?
I joined the Nigeria Police Force as a Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police as far back as 1981. I have been in this job for over two decades now. That is a landmark, the fact still remains that I am security conscious. Right from the onset, I took a decision to join the police force to serve my mother’s land and make a difference. So far I have no regrets and now I am a commissioner of police. In my next life, I’ll still become a policeman
Looking back now over these years, do you regret ever joining the police?
I will say it loud and clear; I am happy to be a police officer and would remain so till God wants my service in heaven as a police officer also. You know, policing has to do with integrity and once people do not have confidence in you, people would not come to you. I worked in very serious turbulent terrain in this country. I have worked in the six geopolitical zones in this country, and I served my heart out in most of the states. Policing is a very tedious job. If you are not healthy and strong, the stress may weigh you down. So far, so good, I have been able to cope with the stress of the job which has never affected my health. I believe in working with the masses which is the best that is grass root policing.
In this state, I’m very happy that I am moving along with the vigilante outfits and the anti cult volunteers corps whose supports have helped my divisions in Ukwuani land very helpful. I cannot talk of my success stories without talking about the vigilante and the anti cult volunteer corps. We encourage them and there is a bill in the Delta State House of Assembly discussing about the vigilante issues. I know within a few weeks, something good will come out from the bill. Security is everybody’s business.
In this state now, if you give us valuable information, which will lead to hide out of criminals, you will be awarded financially and that has helped my command in curbing and curtailing crimes. Some months ago, the State government gave me about N2.5 million. I equally disbursed those to those who had been assisting us with information. We cannot do policing without intelligence gathering, we are on course.
If you had not joined the police force, what would you have become in life?
I love security work and for me, I would have become a soldier. I have made up my mind that if I do not succeed in joining the Nigeria Police Force, I would have joined the Nigeria Army, I see the military as a very good profession.
What are the challenges facing you as a police officer?
I have been saying that Delta State remains a flash point; you talk of the heart beat of this nation that is Delta state for you. All the vices are almost every day. We have one problem or the other and I have to say this; there is no part of the globe that is crime free. We have robbers and youth restiveness in some parts of the state and our response is within five minutes. Members of the public have unlimited access to my office 24/7 and my direct phone number are everywhere in Delta State, so that members of the public can reach me anytime. So
anytime that you call me, on the control room, you can rest assured that we will respond immediately. There are vehicles on patrol 24/7 and like I said, it has not been so easy for us. But so far, so good, we are trying our very best. If you talk of operational vehicles, they are very expensive. We need more of them. Pick up vehicles and operational vehicles; it is even very dangerous to use them. I am appealing to members of the public to provide us with more operational vehicles.
How have you been coping with arms and ammunition possessions among the youths?
We preach to them, sometime we go to town hall meeting to preach to the communities. We have police community relations committees and we go there and address them. We told them that arms build up is evil because they are laying foundation for war and once they are caught, they will be remanded in prison. It does not take us time to catch a criminal, the long arm of the law will definitely get them, we preach to our youths. You talk of sports, Delta State is number one. We have a football league that is on now; I am one of their patrons of sport in the state.
These are area that we expect the youths to participate and excel. In Delta, a female won silver and gold in both high jump and long jump in Russia recently. We have large expanse of available land for farming purposes and getting involved in any form of criminality is not the best. We need to dissuade them, in the oil producing communities, oil that is supposed to be
a blessing is now a curse. Why can’t they settle down and see what they can positively do with this oil? But you see parallel youth leadership fighting, quarrelling, which is in vogue now. They even regard themselves more important than the traditional rulers; some president generals of some of these communities are more powerful than the traditional rulers in the communities. There was a town that we visited and they were having annual election and chaos engulfed the whole episode. At the end of the day, there was a caretaker committee. It is
greed that is in vogue among the oil producing community leaders. And their youths, instead of concentrating on their studies, are struggling for oil all the time. I am not happy, oil ought to be a blessing but the reverse is the case now. In Umuabadege and Hagbogbe, the situation is almost getting out of hand as youths do not have respect for traditional ruler there, same goes for Emadbando/Obodougwa, where there have been relative peace because of our intervention. People are forgetting that when it comes to oil, the federal government is defector
authority in oil matters. The governor was forced to ban the youth activities in Oghara. They invade companies, force people to surrender their possessions and remove somebody’s money with force. There is no sentiment about it; the law is there to take its cause. We are trying our best; we have jingles in the radio and TV programmes to address the complication of crime among youth.
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