In combating crime, there is a thin line between life and death. The possibility of death is even grimmer, or so, when it involves young, exuberant and gung-ho student cultists. One of Nigeria’s more personable police officers, Deputy Commissioner of Police Olatunji Disu, recounted one of the scariest moments of his life recently.
In the ‘Throwback Thursday’ tradition of Twitter, the social media-savvy Commander of the Rapid Response Squad, RRS, recalled; “15yrs ago, when I was the DPO (Divisional Police Officer) Ago Iwoye (Ogun State), I led a team to Ijebu Igbo to arrest a cultist at night. We gained access into his house, behold, he was waiting for us with a rifle. I was in front of a sergeant. The cultist shot at us and hit the Sergeant beside me on the left arm and escaped.”
He expatiated on this part of the incident in a chat with this writer. According to him, he had just been seconded as the DPO of Ago Iwoye, the host community of the Olabisi Onabanjo University and had led his team to neighbouring Ijebu Igbo to arrest a notorious cultist who had masterminded a cult clash that rocked the community.
“Up till now, when I remember that incident, I ask God how I was not shot because everywhere I have worked, I apply myself optimally. The fun of policing is in being out there with your men, see everything that happened and don’t just sit back in the office and be fed stories. The moment we entered the (cultist’s) house, we knocked and he asked from inside who we were and we said we were his men. But unfortunately for us, he whistled a particular code but because we were not cultists, we didn’t get the code. One of his men that was with us did not reply. He repeated the code and we still didn’t reply so he knew immediately that we were enemies. He opened the door and went back, so I entered first and the other policeman followed. He was right beside me and the cultist fired at us at very close range.”
Disu’s tweet read further, “The room became dark with the smoke from the gun and I could hear the sound of blood hitting the floor like water. The Sergeant said ‘Oga, they have shot me. Oga, I am dying.’ He was rushed to the hospital but I didn’t go with them because I was sad, depressed and felt I failed to protect him, more so, we were together in front and nothing touched me. The Sergeant regained full use of his arm after a year and the suspect was arrested at Modakeke (Osun State). The incident traumatized me for years.”
Trust the active users of the micro-blogging site, not a few of them insinuated that the super cop must be deep into voodoo to have missed death by the whiskers. Laughing heartily as we chatted late into the evening last Tuesday in his expansive office inside the Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa, he said, “Don’t mind those (suggesting he must have used voodoo), there was nothing of such. Don’t forget that I had just come in from Lagos, I don’t know juju. Even my colleague that was shot was lucky because the pellets could have entered his stomach; rather, he got it in the arm. It was just God.”
Appointed in 2015 to steer the affairs of the RRS, Disu has overseen the impressive overhaul of the unit, effecting attitudinal change and re-orientating members not to handle combating crime as business as usual while endeavouring to get to crime scenes even before the closest police formations. He averred that what has also separated his men from other units of the police is that they are constantly trained and retrained, thereby, creating a division of the Nigeria Police that respects members of the public in the task of discharging their duties.
An English Education graduate of the Lagos State University; DCP Disu holds a Post Graduate Diploma in International Relations and Strategic Studies also from LASU; a Certificate in Personal Protection in the United Kingdom; and a Master’s degree in Public Administrations from the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba, Ondo State. He joined the Nigeria Police in 1992 as Cadet ASP and has served as DPO in various divisions and states and attended many police training, including Small Arms Smuggling in Botswana; Internet Fraud in Cambridge University, United Kingdom; and Strategic Leadership Command Course in Jos, Plateau State amongst others. He is a member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) and holds a black-belt in Judo. He is currently the National Chairman of the Nigerian Police Judo Association.
