One of his dreams was to ensure that the Police Special Fraud, (SFU), located at Milverton, Ikoyi, Lagos State, became a force to be reckoned with in terms of financial crimes investigation. Okiro glanced through his arsenal of men and his stare landed on Mr. Olayinka Balogun. Balogun became the Commissioner of Police, in charge of SFU.
When he walked into the premises, he met an almost falling apart edifice, overgrown with weeds. The environment was just not a challenge, the job was also one. Balogun smiled because he loved challenges. Within weeks, SFU wore a new look. Several, new crops of policemen, decked out in suits were drafted to SFU. The best financial and handpicked police lawyers were also part of the parcel of policemen that joined SFU. Before Balogun left SFU, he achieved and cracked a lot of mind boggling cases.
He also changed the structures of SFU and ensured constant training of policemen under his watch. SFU bubbled back to life. After he left, the place seemed to fall into a deep slumber. It was like a graveyard; nothing was happening. Subsequent Commissioners of Police, who graced SFU’s office, only appeared to mark time, before taking a bow and drawing the curtain. Balogun retired from Nigeria Police Force in 2012 as the Edo State Commissioner of Police. Balogun was once asked to comment on the sorry state of SFU after he left policing.
He had this to say: “You people decided to encourage mediocrity instead of meritocracy. You put people that you can push around; it’s your business. I have done my bit. Everywhere I worked, I did my best. I went to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti, SFU and Benin, I left my marks. I did my best because I believed very much in the job.
I’m a passionate police officer and I love security jobs.” Soon, SFU, which for long, has been described as a slumbering, toothless bull dog, will soon wake to start barking and biting as the place welcomes the entrance of award winning crack detective, Mr. Dan Okoro. On Monday, Okoro was decorated, with his new rank of a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) by the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Mr. Abdulmajid Ali, in charge of Zone II, Onikan Lagos State.
The promotion comes with immediate move to SFU. Okoro would be working in synergy, not just with crack teams of trained financial investigators, but the arrow head of SFU, the Commissioner of Police, in charge of SFU. Anybody who knows Okoro and has worked with him, knows that within days, life would seep back into SFU. Just like Balogun, Okoro has a penchant for leaving his marks wherever he works. He enlisted into the Nigeria Police Force, as a cadet Inspector in 1984 and since then, started carving a name for himself in investigation and intelligence gathering.
Ali aptly described him, thus: “I decorated Okoro on behalf of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris. And it’s on his behalf I congratulate Okoro for a promotion well-deserved. He has long merited it. When I met Okoro, I noticed he was an astute and intelligence police officer. He’s a policeman to love and hate. You’ll love him for his professionalism and hate him because of his down-to-earth attitude.
We’re living witnesses to his achievements. His promotion was not a surprise.” Responding to questions on the marked inefficiency presently in SFU and how he and his CP hoped to revive the place, Okoro said: “I’m a serious minded police officer when it comes to crime fighting and investigation. I know my onions. I can beat my chest and say, my CP and I, would work together to revive the place.
We’ll keep it at the top, where it matters most. We’ll work! SFU will bounce back and be at the front burner in terms of financial crimes investigations.” He further vowed to improve his present standard in investigation, to ensure quality job delivery in policing and investigations at SFU. He said it was only a matter of time before the place begins to resonate with success stories as he and his CP deploy their wealth of experiences. He added: “The promotion comes with more commitments, hard work and demands result. I promise to deliver.”
Okoro, who has resumed at his new duty post at the SFU, once received a medal for his courage and intelligence from former President Goodluck Jonathan, after he arrested the Internet fraudsters who killed Cynthia Osokogu, a postgraduate student of Nasarawa State University and daughter of a retired General. Before then, he had received the IGP Ibrahim Coomasie Award for Brilliant Investigation and Courage; award from the Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the late Gen. Musa Bamaiyi for dedication and tact, among others.
Okoro, a graduate of University of Lagos, Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomoso, and Imo State University, Owerri, bagged a degree in Law (LLB), a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration. He had also received training at the Egyptian Police Academy and at the Israeli Intelligence Agency, Mossad.https://newtelegraphonline.com/sfu-receives-crack-detective/
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