By Emma Nnadozie

FOR years, the office of the Federal Anti-Robbery Squad,  FedSARS, Adeniji-Adele, Lagos, situated very close to Isale Gangan in Lagos Island, was highly dreaded by both criminals and passersby.

In fact, palpable fear of the twin-storey building pervaded the entire area known for its notoriety with hoodlums and other criminal elements. Worse still, the structure, unabashedly, depicted its unenviable reputation both within and outside it.

The decaying dirty coated paints and scraps of abandoned vehicles and other metals, including the ramshackle, disjointed rods being used as entrance gate, created a picture of  a decrepit dump site.

The only depiction of importance was the glaring presence of gun- wielding uniformed and plain-clothed policemen that walked briskly in and out of the premises.

The sorry state of affairs in the very important arm of the Nigeria Police Force was, inexorably, worsened by a seemingly, administratively orchestrated policy of posting Commissioners of Police that were almost out of service to the unit.

The sad outcome is that they end up fending for their pockets while beating for time to go home instead of improving the state of affairs in the unit. Thus, for unending years, the unit continued to decay in both infrastructure, environment, manpower and output.

Interestingly, just a month after a Deputy Commissioner of Police in the person of Chris Ezike was posted to head the unit from Abuja by the ever -resourceful Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, things took a dramatic turn for the better.

A silent revolution emerged. The unit turned into a Mecca of sort. The new helmsman embarked on total renovation and refurbishment of the whole unit.

Perhaps, the IGP was looking at capability not rank when he veered out of the normal practice to post a Deputy Commissioner of Police to head the unit because as soon as he resumed duties  things changed for the better.

The stinking environment, the dilapidated entrance gate, the broken chairs and tables, the dirty coated paints quickly gave way to a more habitable environment and, overnight, the unit was turned into a spectacle to behold in terms of beauty and aesthetics.

The dilapidated entrance gate gave way to a new, modern gate fitted with security gadgets and painted freshly while all the abandoned vehicles that occupied space in front of the building were removed.

In fact, the security mounted at the gate is such that visitors are not just properly frisked but made to drop their phones and bags before going into the building.

All the offices and toilets have also been refurbished while the water and toilet systems have been made functional and coated with new paints and exquisite tiles. This also goes for the staircase which leads to offices at the top floor.

Unserviceable vehicles

Sources said the second phase which will entail accessing unserviceable vehicles for refurbishment will commence shortly while the cells would not only be refurbished but provided with enough ventilation.

According to the source, people never bothered because they will always associate the place with den of robbers but even at that, robbers have their rights.

It is therefore important to create a habitable environment for work to show leadership so that followers can continue.  That is why, the source continued, every other officer here now has the task of refurbishing his office.

“Granted that there is paucity of funds, people can be ingenious.  There are lots of public spirited people who want to buy ideas.  The IGP equipped us with requisite knowledge and necessary exposure to embark  on such projects. The result is what you are seeing today and more will happen.”

Presently, people now throng to the once dreaded place to enquire the contribution they will make to elevate the unit the more.   Crime Alert gathered reliably that plans have also been concluded for the next line of action which is human capacity building which will involve training and re-training the men of the force posted there so that they can do their job smiling and document properly using the latest IT in vogue.