Nigerian Police Force is saddled with the responsibility of maintaining law and order. Over the years the police had been seen doing this but for some years down the line; the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) has been a shadow.
NPF general overview by the citizen is negative. Nigerians do not believe in the police anymore as a result of the bad eggs among them. The activities of members of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) is a testimony of fact; a case study of Kaka the Remo football star, Tiyamiyu Kazeem.
Kaka was a Remo football star who was recently killed by the bad eggs in SARS some weeks back in Ogun state.
Alas, there is now a light at the end of the tunnel. My experience when I visited Alakuko Police Station in Ojokoro Local Council Development Area (LCDA) on Wednesday, April 1 2020.
Though before now, I knew that we have a couple of fine police officers and what I saw in the of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Alakuko Police Station, SP Maryam Sonubi is apt, on point and top-notch.
SP, Maryam Sonubi is a very discipline officer and a very good one at that. What got my attention were a couple of vehicles of defiant Nigerians who defile the space of stay-at-home law of Lagos State and the Federal Government that says stay-at-home no one moves but one can only leave his or her abode only for essential services.
Me leaving my home falls on essential service categories too because I am a journalist and I owe the society the duty to inform them and give facts that will be of benefit to them all especially during this pandemic. I was on tour to see the level of compliance of our people in Ojokoro Local Council Development and this took me to Alakuko police station where I met SP, Maryam Sonubi.
At the Alakuko police station on Wednesday, I saw vehicles of Nigerians who defile the Stay-at-home law arrested and packed inside and outside the station. One of the vehicles got my attention because it looks like a friend’s car.
I commented, is this not Eldorado’s car? It was a rhetorical question but I got a response from SP, Maryam Sonubi which was a sharp response which means do not go there.
Among the vehicles detained by SP, Maryam Sonubi is one belonging to a police officer of another station coming from duties. Why he was delayed is what I never knew. I heard her say, “I told you I will delay you for 3hr and you have 27min left”. This is her conversation with the police officer when he kept beginning.
I found out that SP, Maryam Sonubi is a very disciplined police officer when she received a call from her brother who was arrested for moving out of the stay-at-home order.
I heard her asking the caller if truly he was going to buy gas and if he has a cylinder in his car. She requested to speak with the officer who arrested her brother.
Her conversation goes thus, “Hello, this is DPO ***(her unique number), that man is my brother. He stays around that area. Check his car if he has a cylinder in his car. If he does; let him go and buy his gas and he will come back and show you. If he did not, do not release him. Thank you”, she ended the call.
I was expecting her to do the regular “Oga to Pikin” order but instead, she put the laws of the land above blood relations. I am impressed.
This shows she can be trusted with responsibilities and others.
This singular act is very rear in humans when it comes to justice and fairness. SP, Maryam Sonubi is a true representation of what all the police officers in a sane society should look like.
I have another bigger thing that caught my attention aside from her kind of person and that is a project she is presently handling. I think I have to talk about that some other time.
My name is Yekinni Razaq, welcome to my diary.
