I cannot claim to know the newly appointed acting Inspector General of Police, Rilwan Olatunji Disu, so well. Therefore, I leave writings such as “The Tunji Disu I know” to his family members, those who grew up with him in his 59 years earthly sojourn, his school mates, his service cohorts and members of the various religious, social and professional bodies to which he belongs.
The closest I can say I have come with the new boss of the Nigerian Police Force was in the year 2017 when we were both awardees of the Lagos Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists.
At that event held at the Blue Roof hall of the Lagos State Television premises on Agidingbi, Ikeja Lagos, we had engaged in a brief chat during which we exchanged views about Lagos security at the time. I recall vividly that we also talked about relationships and interactions between journalism and policing; leading us to dwell briefly on how the two professions could firm up collaborations, reduce frictions knowing that policemen have responsibilities to protect the society, the same society that journalists want to protect by exposing human rights infractions; a huge chunk of which come from some overzealous, corrupt and unprofessional operatives within that force.
But my knowledge of Disu as a fine officer, thoroughbred professional and urbane man predated my encounter with him.
For an officer who had led the Lagos state special security outfit, Rapid Respond Squad (RRS) since 2015 till the day we met in 2017, there was no way my probing eyes and minds would not have scrutinised, at a very close range, a police officer who decided to name his special squad “The Good Guys.”
Just look at that! Wasn’t that a conscious decision to sever the force from the archetypal framing as a band of gun-totting, weird, “wetin you carry,” and “wetin you bring for us” gangsters? Those were the ugly impressions of men of the Nigerian Police Force which had been etched in the psyche of an average Nigerian.
Disu’s “The Good Guys’, enforced the law much more responsibly even while being friendly to citizens.
Through partnerships, community engagements, crime prevention and law enforcement, Disu’s “The Good Guys” made good use of crime mapping, identifying critical hot spots in the state and providing specialised strategies to handle them.
It was under Disu you could see policemen rendering help to people with a critical instance of a woman in labour during the COVID-19 lockdown who was taken to the hospital by operatives.
Speaking less but acting more, Disu was assigned to lead the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) on August 2, 2021, after the inglorious exit of Abba Kyari from that elite wing of the force.
There isn’t any doubt that on and off the cameras, President Bola Tinubu must have set the goals for Disu.
Settling down to work is therefore the only next thing for this unassuming officer in the face of the multiform security challenges that Nigeria faces currently.
He has come at a time that Nigerians are demanding professionalism, fairplay, firmness, innovation and if you like, steeze in confronting security challenges.
I am certain that amidst the euphoria of the acting Inspector General of Police’s appointment has been the uproar of an alleged rights abuse saga involving the Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi and a business woman, Mrs Tracy Ohiri.
As the allegations go, Ohiri, a promotional items merchant, had been contracted (though I have not seen the contract papers) to produce and deliver some campaign materials ahead of Umahi’s governorship contest of Umahi for the governorship seat of Ebonyi State.
Cumulatively, we are now told that the total debt Mr. Umahi owes Ohiri is in the region of N250m having been factoring other possible additions including breach of contracts and interests on a yearly basis.
Not only has Mr. Umahi failed to fulfil his own side of the bargain, he also allegedly made sexual advances to Ohiri, a married woman and did not stop at that, he allegedly threatened the businesswoman; telling her that the fate that befell some NELAN engineers in the state would befall her if she did not stop demanding for payment of her money.
The case of the NELAN engineers is one to be treated separately, judiciously and firmly.
For the records, the five engineers were said to be working with an Enugu-based consultant engineering firm, NELAN Consulting Engineers.
Reports had it that the five were abducted on 3rd November 2011 during their inspection of works at the Ring Road project at Effium in Ebonyi state.
