From his days as an Area Commander and later, Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the dreaded State Criminal Investigations Department, SCID, Panti, Yaba, Lagos, Samuel Adegbuyi has always been seen as an outstanding police officer. His use of human relations skills comes across in every encounter with him.

Reputed as a good crime fighter, he hit the ground running soon after he was posted to the seemingly volatile state of Edo. He spoke with our Crime Editor, Emma Nnadozie on the 2015 elections in Edo and other sundry issues.

Excerpts:

How did the elections go in your command?

You mean the Edo State Police Command? To God be the glory, it went perfectly well.

How did you prepare for the elections?

Preparations started from the Office of the Inspector-General of Police to seminars, workshops and constant briefings, including pamphlets distributed to all officers in the whole federation on the roles policemen were expected to perform before, during and after the elections.

We imparted these to the officers and men accordingly and to God’s grace, the results we have seen here in Edo State is not because we have extraordinary wisdom but we followed strictly the directives of the Inspector-General of police. It was professionally non-partisan and was fair to all parties. And those are attributes that I will say contributed to the success of the electoral process.

What were the challenges and how were you able to surmount them?

CP-Samuel-Adegbuyi

The challenges were much but let’s start from the political parties and politicians themselves. Enlightenment of political parties’ supporters should not be left to INEC or the Police alone. Party leaders, from experience in past elections, should endeavour to organise seminars for their supporters and fellow politicians. They should educate them on the rules and regulations set up by INEC on peaceful conduct of elections.

By this, they will be complementing efforts of INEC and Police officers to ensure that elections take place under conducive and peaceful atmosphere. We lectured our men regularly.

We trained our men and they were seriously warned on the consequences of being partisan or when found to be displaying loyalty to any political party. To God be the glory, elections in Edo State were conducted under peaceful and conducive atmosphere.

There was no place in Edo State where policemen were alleged to have conspired or participated in any manner that will be viewed to be unprofessional. That is all I can tell you. Apart from this, I have to thank other sister security agencies. Even though Police is the primary agency with the functions of providing security, we couldn’t do it alone.

We had collaborative support from the Army, the Department of State Security, NDLEA, Civil Defence Corps, Prisons, Immigrations and Road Safety Corps and the traditional institutions. When we embarked on familiarisation tour on my arrival to the state Police command in February 12 to be precise, my agenda included the forthcoming elections which have been completed, and to God be the glory, the unity of the country has not been mortgaged and we are still looking forward to sustaining the ongoing democratic process in the elections.

Specifically, were there any arrests of suspects during the elections and what were the circumstances?

Arrests were made not necessarily in violence-connected crime. You don’t expect no arrest, where you have teeming crowds of millions who were not robots but human beings, but all these were under the confinement of the law enforcement. Investigations are ongoing and machineries have been put in place by the Inspector-General of Police and the DIG to enforce criminal investigation of those involved in electoral offences.

The cases involved are purely electoral matters and don’t forget that we have our professional code, criminal code. In cases such as homicide-related cases, we don’t need INEC to dictate. Police have the mandate to conduct due investigation and prosecution of such cases.

So, how many specifically did they arrest during the elections?

In the whole of Edo State, we arrested about 22 persons for election-related offences.

Since you assumed duty in Edo state, what has been the major challenges?

The major challenge was that I assumed duty when the major political environment was so high. During rallies, all the political gladiators were warming up. I must commend their spirit. And, I must put on record that Edo people are highly enlightened. It is left for you to have the wisdom of King Solomon to listen to all the petitions whether verbal or written and to be able to maintain your stand without prejudice; without being driven by any particular political interest.

If you are objective and know what you are doing, they are free to file their petitions. It is left for you to carry out your investigation so that at the end of the day, you won’t rob Peter to pay Paul.  Also, we need to thank traditional institutions and the good people of Edo State for coming out and giving the Police and other law enforcement agencies proper and conducive environment for the conduct of the elections.

Aside the political challenges what were the other challenges?

Our challenges are dynamic. In every sphere of life,  you have to re-strategize and you find out that usually, any political campaign heralding election issues,  bordering on thuggery, accumulation of firearms are usually on the increase after elections. Some of the political thugs are jobless.

That is why we have to do everything within our power to mop up all the arms that have been illegally acquired and to beef up our proactive measures through information and intelligence gathering so that we can go back to our primary duties of ensuring that peace, law and order are not breached.

I have appealed to many organisations, the vigilante groups, the traditional institutions and other sister security agencies on sharing of information, so that we can nip crime in the bud and prevent it. So far, so good. Even the media houses in Edo State,  I must commend them because when I assumed duty, I paid official visits to all of them and I can’t ask for more.

I have been enjoying their co-operation and I must confess to you that anywhere there is any ambiguity, they do call me or come physically to find out. That is the way we put our heads together on how to move the state forward. Edo state is peculiar in the sense that it is a gateway state.

It leads towards Delta, Asaba,  Auchi, Okene,  Ondo, Akure and to connect South-West to South-East, you must pass through Edo State.  And we can’t take things for granted.    People move out of Edo state on a 24-hours basis, so law enforcement duty in Edo state is also on a 24-hours basis.

Generally, within this short period of your stay here,  how would you describe Edo State in terms of crime?

I will say that I am very fortunate that on assumption of duty, the crime rate in Edo State is on a manageable trend. Like I said, sister security agencies, traditional institutions  and the government of Edo State have been supportive. I can’t take it away from the government, in terms of logistics provisions and the political leaders generally.

They have not disappointed.    Even though at the height of this, which is typical of a democratic process,  they have all conducted themselves with political maturity. That is why incidents of arson, destruction of properties and or political assassinations are not recorded in the state. I urge them to maintain the tempo and give INEC the chance to improve on the current mechanism they have put in place for the betterment of Edo State and the country at large.

What is your candid advice to the  people of the state?

My candid advice has always been collaboration with the police as an institution, collaboration with other law enforcement agencies, information dissemination and in achievement of this, we have these materials given to all religious organisations and I must commend the efforts of the Police Community Relations Committee, PCRC, in Edo state. They have been performing creditably well in complementing the efforts of the command towards crime eradication or effective crime management.

I would like you to emphasise more on mopping up arms and ammunitions?

It is a gradual process.  All the arms can’t be acquired at the same time. By March 26, the command recorded a very big victory where weapons were recovered from bandits, with ammunition enough to wage war against the country. You won’t believe that it is not everything that we recovered that is made known to the public in order not to create a panic situation.

By the massive haulage of the recovery, we were amazed by transit criminals not within Edo state but on transit to another state. Rifles, pistols, smoke guns, assorted weapons that are dangerous to the society if they were not intercepted in time were impounded recently. It is an ongoing process and we will not relent on our efforts.

We owe it as a duty to the residents of Edo State in making  it conducive for investment or inter-state travellers who are coming into the state for relaxation. Edo state is noted for its traditions and hospitality.