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Police and military officers need to be celebrated, especially those who unilaterally curb insecurity in society and help to create a conducive atmosphere for the citizenry. These officers sacrifice so that society can experience peace. They deprive themselves of sleep so that people can sleep. They fight dangerous criminals of various grades and even protect our properties just to ensure a safe society. Many of them retire into penury and go cap-in-hand, while many others retire with bullet wounds and pain. Many have lost their lives while fighting Boko Haram and other violent groups around the country .
Report from the North East discloses that over 300 policemen and women were killed during the insurgency, while more than that number are in critical condition.
The same fate had befallen many military personnel while protecting the sovereignty of the country and its citizenry.
ln other climes, these security personnel have the honour to receive a standing ovation and see their president stand up to honour their patriotic service.
One Nigerian police officer that deserves to be celebrated is the recently retired Commissioner of Police for Anambra State, Mr. Sam Abichele Okaula.
A native of Adoka in Benue State and an ldoma by tribe, this writer first met him in 1985 while he was the police public relations officer in Benue State, where l was posted as the Chief Correspondent of the National Concord newspaper. He was then about complying with a transfer posting order to Lagos. Years later, our paths crossed again when he was the commander of the Anti-Robbery Squad at the State Criminal investigation Department (SCID), Panti, Lagos, when he led a team that cracked the brutal murder of the first Nigerian female pilot Captain Lantana Oboh (details is in my book, “Dark Clouds: The Confessions of Notorious Armed Robbers in Nigeria”). That operation further highlighted his investigative ingenuity.
Had Okaula been left to continue as a public relations officer, who would have known that he had the ability to fight criminals? That has been the lot of many police officers who have been caged in the system and left to rot without playing their real part in curbing insecurity in the society.
The police ought to start identifying the potential in junior policemen and women instead of clamping them to a particular skill. Presently, there are officers that should have been better utilised in their area of passion.
The likes of Okaula are many in the Nigeria Police, whose major desire is to see a crime-free society, but they are not opportune either because they lack godfathers or due to the faults in the system.
Okaula’s deep conviction that criminals could be chased out of every state with strategic planning further exposed him to the authorities in the police. In fact, he turned out to be their favourite crime fighter. The police has been blessed with such men before Okaula; the likes of the late DIG Haruna John, lGP Gambo Jimeta, Amusa Bello, Simeon Midenda, AIG Taiwo Lakanu, CP Junaid Lateef, Ben lgwe and many other retired crime fighters.
Okaula’s calm nature like a man that cannot hurt a fly amply deceived criminals who usually and easily fell into his traps. When he was assigned to fish out the killers of the female pilot, he strategically planned and, to the amazement of the IGP, his investigative prowess and instincts made him discover that the body of the pilot was dumped into a sewage pit by her security guard. The operation opened the gate for Okaula’s rise to stardom.
Before his retirement as Commissioner of Police, Okaula was the brain behind the unravelling of the sensational robbery of the bullion van belonging to Wema Bank branch in Oyingbo, Lagos, where all the participating robbers were rounded up and the millions of naira recovered intact. In five straight years, Okaula fought robbers in and around Lagos State to a standstill as the commander in charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
One of the outstanding robbery operations was the decimation of the notorious robber, Shina Rambo, a robber with immense skill and tact, who dazzled and terrorised security operatives and residents of Lagos from his Benin Republic hideout. Rambo upgraded his robbery strategies more than the kingpin of robbers in Nigeria, Lawrence Anini. Rambo was a merciless killer and a fearless robber who never differentiated between a civilian and a police officer. He saw all as his prospective victims.
At this time, Okaula was the commander in charge of SARS, Lagos State. He strategically planned and ended that era of Rambo with the assistance of other operatives. As age began to wear him down, another aspect of Okaula was discovered by the police authorities as he was appointed a principal staff officer (PSO) to one of the IGPs; at the last count, he had served as PSO to four successive IGPs (who knew his worth) at the Force Headquarters Annex Lagos.
Okaula led government teams to Spain for four consecutive years to provide Police Character certificates for illegal Nigerian immigrants, leading to over 14,000 of them securing Spanish resident permits. ln 2016, he was among the most outstanding command commissioners honoured by this column. He served as the commander Federal Task Force on Pipeline Vandalism in Warri and Port Harcourt, where he restored sanity for over two years. He it was who helped the federal government to stop the Niger Delta militants from further blowing up pipelines along the creeks. His knack for details during investigation was a result of his early exposure in crime fighting.
His feats in Anambra State were unparalleled, as communities and unions fell over one another to honour his style of policing. Okaula also served in Rivers, Delta and Kwara states, where his crime fighting footprints are still indelible. Today, the quintessential crime fighter, popularly called ‘The New Sheriff’ by his admirers and subordinates, ha bowed out while the ovation is loudest.
Okaula got his first degree from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, a master’s degree in International Law and a diploma from the University of Lagos, as well as a degree from the prestigious Galileo international Management Institute, lsrael, where he underwent rigorous training on national security.
As Okaula marches out of the police force into civilian life at the age of 60, a society he had over the years laboured to keep safe and secure, one believes that his good works would not be in vain. It is such retired officers that should be re-engaged to handle the training of the incoming recruits and cadets, because the police is fast losing its good and best trained hands.
