Israel Adeleke
Arguably, Ogun State Police Command is one of the very robust commands in Nigeria.
It is also one of the very active and sensitive commands due to the high rate of crimes recorded in the state and it’s strategic position and location .
The state, otherwise called gateway state, has the potential to record large number of crimes following its proximity to Lagos and being a gate to many states in the country. Ogun state also shares border with Oyo, Ondo and Benin Republic .
According to a research conducted by PLATFORM TIMES, within the last three years, Ogun State police command has produced four different Commissioners of Police .
This development was queried by this reporter who peeped into the rationale behind the deployment of four trained officers of Police within the three years .
Edward Awolowo Ajogun became Ogun state Commissioner of Police in July 2020 following the retirement of CP Kenneth Ebrimson.
Ajogun left the command, October 1, 2021, having attained the 60 year-old retirement age.
He is an Edo State born police officer, and a product of the University of Ibadan.
Ajogun is an indigene of Akoko Edo in Edo state. An alumnus of the Premier University of Ibadan where he studied political science and graduated with second class honour upper division.
He joined the Nigeria Police Force in 1988 and he has been working across the length and breadth of Nigeria in various capacity, while his first posting was 2i/c Police Public Relations Officer of the old Bendel State, and when Delta state was created, Ajogun was posted as the substantive Police Public Relations Officer, Delta State Police Command.
He has also served as a detective at X Squad unit of the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) Alagbon, after which he was posted as Chairman Taskforce on Postal and Telecommunication, and was later posted to Lagos State Police Command where he served as Divisional Police OfficerD in Elere Division and Ebute Ero respectively.
He has also served as the Personal Assistant to a former Inspector General of Police Mr. Tafa Balogun,and he was also the Principal Staff Officer to another former Inspector General of Police Mr. Solomon Arase, and when he was promoted to the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police, he served as Area Commander Bauchi, Akure and Area F Ikeja at various time.
In 2015, he was promoted to the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police and he served with that rank as D.C operations in River state, Abia State, Ondo State and Ogun State, and also served as DC State CID in Akwa-Ibom and Ekiti states respectively.
He got promoted to the rank of Commissioner of Police in 2019 and he was posted to Police Medical Services as CP Admin in Falomo Lagos state, and from there, he was deployed to Ogun State Police Command as the number one police officer in the state.
However, after serving for a year and three months (July 22, 2020 – Oct 1, 2021), CP Ajogun disengaged from the Nigeria Police Force upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60.
The next CP that took over from Ajogun was, Lanre Sikiru Bankole, who assumed office in October 2021 and spent a year and four months (Oct 7, 2021 – Feb 9 2023).
Bankole was Commissioner of Police Interpol Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Alagbon, Lagos before he was deployed in the state.
The new CP is a graduate of English and Literature, University of Lagos (UNILAG) and a holder of LLB in Law from Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, and BL from Nigeria Law school Lagos.
He joined the Nigeria police as a cadet assistant superintendent of police in March 1990 and has worked in various capacities in different parts of the country such as Akwa Ibom police command, Ebonyi state police Command, Port Authority police Command as well as Ogun State Police Command.
The new CP is a familiar face in Ogun State, as he had at different times worked as a divisional police officer in Abigi, Sango, Agbara, and Owode Egba respectively.
CP Bankole has also served as Area Commander Sagamu Ogun State, as well as zonal sports officer.
He was one time the assistant commissioner of police in charge of port CID at Port Authority police Command.
When he was promoted to the rank of Deputy commissioner of police, he was posted to the Interpol section of FCIID Abuja as DC Admin and investigation from 2017 to 2020.
During his short stay as Commissioner of Police, Bankole made significant contributions to law enforcement in the state. However, in a surprising turn of events, he was redeployed to Lagos as the head
of the INTERPOL Force HQ, Lagos annex.
The third CP within the years under review was Frank Mba, who assumed the office of Commissioner of Police in Ogun State on February 9, 2023, after CP Bankole’s redeployment.
He was however redeployed less than two months after his assumption of office, (February 9, 2023 – March 2023).
Mba is a Nigerian lawyer and police officer, immediate Force Public Relation Officer of the Nigeria Police (FPRO) .
He was promoted to the rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police .
PLATFORM TIMES gathered that Mba was the Commissioner with the shortest time ever in the annal of the command as he was redeployed to the Force Criminal Investigations Department, Alagbon, Lagos after his promotion to the rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police.
Currently, Oladimeji Yomi Olanrewaju is the Commissioner of Police in Ogun State having taken over from CP Frank Mba.
CP Oladimeji Yomi Olanrewaju,( April 272023 – till date), he took over from CP Frank Mba.
Olanrewaju is a graduate of History/Political Science and joined the Nigeria Police Force as a cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police in 1990.He was trained at Police Academy, Kaduna annex.
At the completion of his training, the new CP was posted to Edo state Police Command, where he served in different capacity in several divisional headquarters in the Command.
He was one-time Police Public Relations Officer of Edo State Police Command, he also served as Divisional Police Officer in Auchi, Uromi, New Benin as well as 2i/c Departments of operations Edo state Police Command.
He was later posted to Ogun State, where he served as DPO Mowe and Ilaro divisional headquarters as well as acting Area Commander Ilaro Area Command.
When he was promoted to the rank of Assistant Commissioner of police, he was posted to Sokoto state as the Assistant Commissioner of police Department of Finance and Administration. From Sokoto State, he was posted to Benue State as Assistant Commissioner of police in-charge of State Criminal Investigation Departments.
The new CP was also one time Area commander Abakaliki metro in Ebonyi state.
As a Deputy Commissioner of Police, the new CP served as Deputy Commissioner in-charge of State Criminal Investigation Departments in Borno state as well as Deputy Commissioner of Police, Departments of Finance and Administration in River state.
When he got promoted to the rank of Commissioner of Police, he was posted to Force Criminal Investigation Departments Alagbon Annex as CP Anti Fraud section. That was his last duty post before his deployment as the new helmsman for Ogun state Police Command.
He also has a Bachelor Degree in law and he has been called to Bar.
Olanrewaju is the latest addition to the list of Commissioners who have occupied the position within the past three years. As of now, he has been in office for a relatively short period, and it remains to be seen how long his tenure will last.
Commissioner of Police And The Roles
A Commissioner of Police heads a state command, they are appointed by the Inspector-General of Police and approved by the Police Service Commission.
The CP takes instructions directly from the Inspector General of police or anyone acting in the absence of the Inspector General.
The CP is responsible for the cutting of crime and delivering an effective and efficient police service within his force area, he oversees the force’s state command.
However, despite producing Four CPs in three years, Ogun State continues to record series of crimes every week ranging from armed robbery to kidnapping, murder, cultism, among others .
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