An officer’s unusual dream

Eyoh Anietie is the Divisional Police Officer, B’ Division, Warri Area Command of the Nigeria Police who dreams of building the most beautiful divisional police headquarters in West Africa. EBENEZER ADUROKIYA reports on how he is going about making the dream a reality.

‘THE police is your friend’ is a common slogan of the Nigeria Police, but most Nigerians are not convinced that this is so, given their everyday experience with some personnel of the force. Other factors, including acts of extortion, brutality, extrajudicial killings and overall performance of men of the Nigeria Police have also contributed to the totality of this negative image.

Although, other professions and callings also have their fair share of vices, if not more, but the police, being ubiquitous and the closest to the populace, suffer stricter scrutiny, monitoring and image bashing.

However, a handful of men and women in the force still present a flicker of hope for a brighter future, for a force that was once dreaded and revered.

Arguably, one of these torchbearers is Mr Eyoh Anietie, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of ‘B’ Division, Warri Area Command in Delta State. He is an officer who personifies professionalism, industry, commitment, gallantry, humanness and other qualities expected in an ideal officer.

Sunday Tribune in Warri got a hint of some of the exploits of this officer and gentleman and went in search of him, wanting to know more of his art of professional policing which has earned him a household name in the entire Warri Area Command.

Media shy but courteous, Mr Anietie would scarcely talk about his reported ingenuity but would rather want the testimonies of others to serve as true assessment of his achievements.

Sunday Tribune during investigations gathered that Mr Anietie was posted to Warri on May 1, 2015, and within the space of two years, he has literally etched his name in gold. Suffice to say that while some of his colleagues wallow in self-pity, complaints and excuses for not doing enough, this officer stays awake at midnights fashioning and churning out solutions to myriad challenges confronting his division.

As of the time Anietie resumed at his new station, the structures there could pass for makeshift offices, so unbefitting for operations of modern-day policing, typical of the decrepit buildings that are common eyesores in most police stations across the country. Sunday Tribune, however, gathered that Anietie has a track record of bringing about professional, ethical and infrastructural changes anywhere he’s redeployed.

For instance, it was gathered that he was instrumental to similar developmental projects at his previous places of assignment such as MOPOL 8, Jos and Akwa Ibom ‘C’ Division. Armed with a track record, the Akwa-Ibom-born DPO embarked on transforming his new division.

He began by pulling down the shanties and ramshackle structures and began erecting modern ones right from the scratch in order to create a better working environment for his men.

To execute the project, Anietie was said to have approached members of his host community for financial help with a promise to pay back by stemming the alarming rate of crime.

With the cooperation of eminent people including business men, traditional rulers, public servants, community elders and youths, among others from Ekurede Urhobo community in Warri South Local Government Area where B’ Division is located, funds were raised and the face lifting project began.

Some of the new structures are Officer’s Mess and Officers’ Complex. When Sunday Tribune visited the division, it was observed that the Officers’ Mess has been completed and is being painted. The building, it was gathered, would be ready for commissioning by September 30, 2017. Findings revealed that the projects are worth N150 million. This is in addition to the building materials worth N60 million donated by residents.

In an interview, Regent and traditional Prime Minister of Ekurede Urhobo kingdom, Chief Wilson Eboh, spoke well of the officer.

“Eyoh is a fantastic man in the area and he has performed brilliantly well to my taste and you can see the work going on in the place. He had curbed a lot of robbery and kidnapping activities in the area; he has been working very hard. I have no regrets about him; my assessment of him is perfect. I know nobody is perfect, but I can’t find a fault in him to criticise him.

“He has performed brilliantly well and he has carried himself high. He collaborated with the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) and the community to make sure that this place is crime-free, so, I give him a pass mark,” he stated.

The traditional ruler went down memory lane on how the initially waterlogged police station metamorphosed to a division even before the arrival of Anietie.

According to him, “that division was formerly a police post; so during the Warri crisis, it could not stand. The place was even burnt so people felt the police could not stand in a place like that again. But when I saw the pressure – robbers would break into people’s houses, killing people anyhow – I felt the need to bring the police back again.

“Their very first office used to be a family house. I started to work on the burnt building and I went to meet one CP then and I told him I wanted police officers to be brought back.

“So, we got it again as a police station, but I said no, it should be a full division; so that was how it was created and I am still alive to testify to that.”

The Regent said since DPO Anietie arrived at the division, more structures have been added with some yet to be completed, adding that he built the gate-house and the structures there with the help of all.

Chairman of Warri Local Government Area, Mr Mofe Edema, also paid glowing tribute to Anietie.

“He has been wonderful; he has brought calmness to that area.  There is no gainsaying that at a point in time, it was a place meant for crimes.

“He has also been able to help in managing the communities around that area. From my own assessment, he has been wonderful.

“We all contributed, as you know, God helped me in building A’ division in my first tenure as chairman; this time there wasn’t money to build so what we are doing is to give him all the necessary assistance and support that he needs.

“There are good people in Warri South who love what he is doing and to the best of my knowledge, he has done well,” Edema, popularly called ‘Man of God,’ disclosed.

The youth of Ekurede Urhobo were not left out in expressing delight that criminality has reduced and development has come to the division. Christopher Otumu, PCRC chairman, ‘B’ Division Warri, and youth President of Ekurede Urhobo, Cyril Eboh, also lauded Anietie’s efforts.

“He is not doing badly. By the grace of God, I have been in office now for four years and before now, our area was known for violence, such that towards the evening, you will start hearing that they stole somebody’s bag or they have stabbed somebody, but when he came, being a very proactive person, he is not someone who will just send one of his officers, you will see him personally,” Eboh noted.

In order to underscore his dream of building a modern police structure, Anietie has not only included modern police cells in the project, CCTV cameras have also been added. Hopefully, this project when finally completed might stand as a testimony that there is need to reinvent the partnership between the people and the Nigeria Police.