By Alexander Ekemenah
When I received an invitation a week earlier to attend a Stakeholders’ meeting with the Lagos State Police Command, I did not think much of it – but was merely curious, wondering what the meeting would be about.
On the day of the scheduled meeting, April 19, 2023, there was heavy downpour of rain which nearly discouraged me from venturing outside my office that day.
Eventually, I summoned courage and proceeded to the venue of the meeting at the Lagos State Police Headquarters at Ikeja GRA.
I arrived at the hall to meet many known faces whom I greeted and exchanged banters. I found a seat near where the Commissioner of Police was to address us.
There should be close to sixty people in the hall that day.
He finally arrived and we all rose to greet him.
However, the first thing I noticed was that he had his chair pulled from the high podium and had placed it at the head of the conference table where he sat surrounded by his deputies and other officers.
“What’s that?” I asked myself. I thought the guy would sit at the high podium and address us from there as most government officials are wont to do.
“This guy must be something else! This guy must be humble! Or is he playing tricks?”
The Lagos State Police PRO, Mr. Benjamin Hundeyin (I am seeing him for the first time) started off the meeting by reading the CP’s profile. It was impressive but I wasn’t really listening. I was anxious to hear him talking.
The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Idowu Owohunwa, kicked off the interactive session by apologizing for keeping us waiting.
The moment he opened his mouth to talk, I knew immediately that this is no ordinary police officer. He’s well educated, refined and articulate.
He laid on the table his reasons for summoning the meeting and the major areas of security concerns which he said he want to hear from us as contribution to the knowledge pool on how to tackle those areas of concerns. These include domestic violence which is known to be on the increase in the state, gender-related crimes, rape incidences, and other areas of criminal activities in the state.
He simply put forward an agenda to serve as template or framework for cooperation with all the stakeholders to confront and combat sundry criminal activities in the state.
All of us were in state of surprise if not suspense. This was because this was the first time such a meeting would take place between various stakeholders (which include lawyers and representatives of civil society organizations) and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police.
The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Idowu Owohunwa, has just arrived the state in February 2023 and has called a stakeholders’ meeting. That’s incredible. Nothing like this has happened before. It was an amazing encounter!
“Can anything good ever come out of “Bethlehem”, of the Nigerian Police in this case given its record that is often adjudged to be on low in public estimation?” I asked myself and I guess, from the surprised faces of attendees, might have also been asking themselves.
It is evident that CP Owohunwa is wired to think differently by his education, value orientation that create or generate a different vision for combating crimes in a metropolis like Lagos, refinement of character and physical comportment that make him people-friendly to generate support from the public – perhaps including more inner qualities not visible at the surface level yet.
CP Owohunwa is trying to create new security architecture for the state (although he did not specifically mention this) for modern policing of a metropolis like Lagos. And of course, modern policing of a metropolis like Lagos with its sharp class inequalities, high poverty rate, different ethnic groupings and cultural milieu calls for thinking outside the conventional box. And thinking outside this box to generate a new methopraxy of security order is what the new CP is trying to do.
It is indeed a novel approach calling for a Stakeholders’ meeting by the CP at this earlier stage of his tenure.
Participants no doubt responded enthusiastically by critically interrogating each of the items brought forward for discussion by the CP while pledging to support the administration of the CP to succeed in executing his agenda.
Naturally other ancillary matters were raised and discussed fairly extensively. It was a “golden opportunity” to do so. For instance, the issue of road blocks that often generates conflicts between policemen and motorists including the vexatious issue of policemen impounding and searching phones of citizens or private users were raised. On road blocks, the CP called for mutual respect between policemen and motorists. But the CP did not mince words on the illegality of such practices as impounding and searching phones of private users. He revealed that the recent case over this is currently under investigation while the policemen and the DPO involved have been placed under suspension and may face prosecution if they are reasonably believed to have exceeded their bound of duties. He made it clear that his administration will not shield any police officer exceeding his or her bound of statutory duties.
The CP is calling for new security architecture for combating crimes in the State, an architecture that will involve the active participation of the public itself through individuals and/or CSOs and NGOs to make Lagos a safer place to live and work.
The CP brought to the fore a nagging issue that he said to be of major concern to him: cult-related crimes in the State. He revealed that a recent case in which some alleged cultists were apprehended and caught with firearms resulted into the cultists even having the temerity to tell the police to “go to court”. The CP, therefore, solicited for the support of all stakeholders, particularly the Judiciary in tackling this genre of criminal activity in the State.
In winding up the meeting, the CP created a mini committee that will serve as clearing house for all the issues raised at the meeting. The CP promised to be in regular touch with the public through the collaborative work with all relevant stakeholders.
Last but not the least and most surprising was that the Police Command served the participants a tea break consisting of small chops, soft drinks and water. Participants were aghast with wonder. Police giving snacks? Incredible. Wonder shall never end. Something good can, after all, come out of Bethlehem!
But just your breath! Towards the end of the meeting, it was announced that lunch is available. Lunch? Haaah! Something is really happening here. The lunch consisted of African and continental dishes. Participants (including myself) fed themselves to their satisfaction.
It is a good starting point for the Lagos Police Command under the leadership of CP Idowu Owohunwa and his team.
He deserves to be supported by all right-thinking people who are desirous in seeing crimes reduced to manageable proportion in the State.