… Says “we have paraded about 20 scavengers who are suspected manhole thieves and vandals”
From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Olusola Odumosu is the new Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) commandant of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He assumed office on July 15, this year to rejig and reinvigorate the security system of the FCT, which is fast losing its beauty due to the negative activities of scavengers, popularly known as ‘baba bola’.
Baba bola specialises in stealing manhole covers, streetlights and traffic lights during the unholy hours of the night. They appear pitiable in the day, but they unleash terror in the night.
To this effect, the Commandant General of NSCDC, Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi, appointed Odumosu to sanitise and restore FCT to its former glory.
According to Odumosu, there’s no provision for layabouts in the FCT. In the the law guiding the capital, scavengers are not allowed in the city centre, he said.
Consequently, over 40 persons have been rounded up and handed over to appropriate quarters for prosecution.
Odumosu who spoke with Sunday Sun on his strategies to rid the FCT of layabouts and scavengers assured that there’s nothing like accidental discharge, adding that such excuses are not entertained in NSCDC.
He spoke on other interesting issues.
In police, the usual language is accidental discharge. Do you condone it here?
How many times have you heard that there’s accidental discharge in Civil Defence? No. Because we have a Commandant General that will not condone it and we hold any commandant accountable if any of his officers uses firearms anyhow. We don’t condone it here. So, the Commandant General does not condone it. I will never condone it here. Besides, our officers are well trained. And at each training, riot acts are being declared to their hearing. In Civil Defence, there’s no such thing as accidental discharge because our officers are well trained. We have a Commandant General who has zero tolerance for such a thing.
What are your mandates from the Commandant General?
As you know, I was the immediate past director, Public Relations for NSCDC. And, of course, sending me here he gave me a marching order to ensure that FCT Command is sanitised and repositioned strategically and structured for effective service delivery knowing full well that the FCT Command is like a window through which the government will assess the NSCDC in general. So, we cannot afford to fail the government because as a lead agency in the protection of physical assets and infrastructure, Abuja (FCT precisely) happens to be one of the well planned cities in the world and apparently infrastructural development of FCT is standardised and improved upon. If we are the lead agency in the protection of physical national assets, the onus is upon us to ensure that the issue of vandalism of our physical infrastructure in FCT is stopped. The manholes are of very critical interests to me. The theft of manholes covers in FCT is very critical and should be tackled immediately. This is one of the major mandates the Commandant General has given to me to ensure that we put it to a stop. All manhole thieves we are going to send them out of the precincts of Abuja. Every infrastructure provided by the government will remain in place and will be maintained for the good of Abuja residents. If you observe at night, streets in the city centre are in total darkness. It’s not as if the government is not providing streetlights. They are being vandalised by people. The aluminium materials are being sawed down and taken away. The traffic lights are the major issues that are burning on my mind right now. These are things we will checkmate to ensure that we rid FCT of miscreants and scavengers. The majority of these people pretend to be scavengers. For instance, we have paraded about 20 scavengers who are suspected manhole thieves and vandals. Tell me what somebody will be doing under the bridge by 1:30 a.m, 2:00 a.m. They roam the streets by 2:00 a.m, 3:00 a.m in the name of ‘baba bola?’ And according to the law guiding FCT, scavengers are not allowed in the city centre. And I have the mandate of the minister to arrest anyone who pretends to be a scavenger in the FCT. So, those people who wait under the bridges until the whole environment is quiet, then they will come out and pick the manholes one after the other, vandalising street lights must be arrested and prosecuted. When I came in, I reinvigorated my patrol team and we ensured that all strategic locations within the city centre are combed. My men are on patrol from 10:30 p.m, 11:00p.m till 5:00 in the morning and any miscreants that we see will be arrested. Upon questioning, if there’s no satisfactory answer apparently something is wrong somewhere. They do not only steal manholes. Some of them act as informants to bandits because they monitor the activities of security operatives. In the name of scavenging they go into homes, divulge information to the people that sent them. Very serious and dangerous elements that we cannot allow to fester in FCT. So, my determination is to work closely with the minister. Before now he was nicknamed ‘Mr Project.’ What that tells us is that there will be a lot of infrastructural developments in FCT. So, that’s why we will not rest on our oars. As long as we are still breathing we will not allow the scavengers, the miscreants, the vandals who are vandalising government property. We will not allow them to rest. We are going to flush them out of FCT. So, that’s the mandate and that’s what I want to achieve.
Are there other issues you will want to tackle in your 100 days in office?
The issue is that the critical assets protection is the core mandate of NSCDC amongst others. As a matter of fact, we are the ones in charge of supervision, licensing of private guard companies. Of course, you know private guards companies are major stakeholders in terms of security provision. Aside from government security, private guards security are also there to provide security at the private level and most of them are useful for information and intelligence gathering. And, of course, the issue of security is not something that should be in the hands of any Yahaya and Abdullahi. It’s not going to be an all-comers affair. Things that I have in my blueprint to achieve is also to sanitise the private guard companies within the FCT. We are going to go after those operating illegally. Those who are operating without licences. If their licences have expired and they gave failed to renew they should be sanctioned. We are going to sanitise them. Those who don’t follow due process in the recruitment of their guards, we are going to go after them. We are going to sanitise that industry and ensure that those who are not supposed to be in business will not be in business. Only those that are supposed to be in business will be in business. We are going to take proper accounting of their personnel and profile them accordingly. We will make sure that some of these people they are recruiting within their companies are not agents. How do we do that? It’s when we do what we are supposed to do, proper supervision, proper monitoring. That’s what I am going to activate. So, the department in charge of that has a lot of work to do. Very soon we will be going after those who have not done what they should do. Those who are not meant to be in business in private guards, we are going to go after them. All these we are going to introduce and strategise strategically and ensure that we are on top of our game.
Discipline
Discipline is very key. As a paramilitary organisation, discipline is our watchword and we have to start with ourselves. We have to ensure that we do things right. When your people are disciplined, when their minds are renewed, you see a lot of commitments. So, we must entrench discipline. And once we get it right, our command and control structure will be re-energised, renewed and we will be able to do things right. As it’s, we need a situation where our men will go out there and do what is expected of them. Under my own watch, under my own leadership I have told them that I will not tolerate indiscipline. There are some people that when you deploy them to places they escape and go back to their house. All these must stop. I mean that we must entrench discipline no matter the capacity that I claim to have I can’t do it all by myself. In a situation where officers don’t do what they are supposed to do and if you allow them then you are encouraging indiscipline and laziness. That I will not allow. It’s a new dawn in the FCT Command. Whatever it is they are not doing right before they must change. They must renew their mind, rededicate themselves, be committed to service. But if you are not disciplined at heart all these ones cannot be achieved. First and foremost I have told them discipline is very key and also the way they dress is also very important. You must represent the corps very well wherever you find yourself. So, I have told them, as far as I am concerned, the way you dress is the way you are addressed. That’s why sometimes, as a security officer, you are talking to a citizen or fellow Nigerians who are supposed to listen to you and respect you, but because you are shabbily dressed, they first of all size you up like, do you even know what you are doing, who are you? But when you are smartly dressed, you are properly conducted. Then in terms of character, attitude and approach, they won’t take you seriously. And I have told you that we are civil defenders. Our approach to people is very important. You don’t have to molest anybody. I have told them that any case that’s here because you are wearing uniform, because of that you want to harass, you want to intimidate, you want to molest, I will deal with such officers because our father, the Commandant General, Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi, has told us that we must take the people very, very seriously. We must not harass; we must not intimidate. We are there to serve the people and when you serve you serve with decorum and with civility. We must have a listening ear as officers. That’s the only way people must see you as their friend. They must see you as approachable. That is one of the reasons there’s failure in intelligence because people that are supposed to be informants are afraid of your manner of approach. I have told them that we are not living in the barracks. We are living among the people. Now, what is your relationship with the people in your neighborhood? How do they see you? Are you approachable; are you the intimidating type? Because you are wearing uniform you see it as a privilege to molest and intimidate people. I have told them we won’t take it. I have told them that they must be civil. People can see us as friends; people can approach us; people can give us information. Without information we cannot do anything.
Do your functions clash with the police. Can you move for merger with the police?
The mandate of NSCDC is very clear, very unambiguous. The mandate of the police is very clear, very unambiguous. But in the business of security, efforts and roles are intertwined. We are all working towards the same national interest, towards the same goal. And what is the goal -national security. So, there’s no way Civil Defence can work without the co-operation with the police and there’s no way the police can work without the co-operation of the Civil Defence. And there’s no way Civil Defence and police can work without the co-operation of the Nigerian army. We are all working towards the same goal, but our mandates are different. Each and every agency knows its boundary. For instance, we are the lead agency in the protection of critical and national assets and infrastructure. The police are the lead agency in internal security management. So, even if in the course of discharging our functions and we run into criminals, my officers will not tell me that because it’s not their mandate they allowed the criminals to go free without arresting, apprehending and even taking them down. They must fight them. They must arrest them. They must rescue the people. And when we have this kind of situation we hand over to the police because it’s not our mandate. If I arrest an armed robbery, for instance, I cannot prosecute an armed robber. We hand over to the police who have the mandate of internal security to prosecute such a crime. That’s why I told you that our work is intertwined, interwoven. We cannot do without one another. There are no clashes of interest. It’s just a matter of understanding. People create problems where there’s none. The government is father to all. The government is the one paying individual’s salary. Every resource due to police does not affect Civil Defence. Whatever we get doesn’t affect the police neither does it affect the Nigerian military. If you go to more developed countries you see all of these go side by side and hand in glove with one another, carrying everybody along, sharing intelligence. It’s the same thing in this clime. So, all we need to do is to preach agency co-operation among ourselves. We should not see one another as competitors rather as collaborators because it’s one goal that we are pursuing – national interest. Protection of the nation, protection of the citizenry; enhancing national security and above all ensuring that people are safe, people are secured. Because security and safety of the people is the major pre-occupation of government. We, as the foot soldiers have to make that happen. So, as far that I am concerned there are no clashes of interest.
As a commandant have you handled ammunition?
To be very honest I am a well trained officer and I have done arms training at my level. As a general duty officer, I have served in other states in different capacities. So, it’s mandatory for every member of the corps to go through arms training because you can be called upon at any time for any assignment. As it stands today, if I have an operation that requires me to be on the field with my men, you will not see me sitting down in my office. I will be on the field. So, if I have not gone through it how will I be able to do that? I have gone through arms training just like all my other officers. I am very experienced when it comes to that. So, the issue of firearm is not the problem. But, of course, you know that firearms are not to get used haphazardly or indiscriminately. The use of firearms is the last resort. You must have exhausted every other means of arresting a situation. You cannot just deploy the use of firearms.
Reward system
Of course. We have a commandant general who’s not docile, who is highly intelligent and who cares for the welfare of personnel. Before I became the FCT Commandant I worked closely with him as the director, Public Relations and I have seen the modus and how we go about issues that have to do with staff welfare. The man takes staff welfare very very seriously. So, my duty here as the commandant in charge of FCT in terms of reward system is to recommend. At the end of the year, there’s what we call the Commandant General’s Award to outstanding officers where state commandants are asked to furnish the national headquarters names of officers and men who have performed outstandingly within the period under review.
Is it because of your relationship with the CG that you were posted to FCT considered as lucrative by the corps?
Well, I do not know what you mean by lucrative. We are not into any enterprising business. We are into service providing. We are into business of security. So, lucrativeness should be out of it. Yes, the Commandant General brought me to FCT to make a change having understood the enormity of vandalism of critical national assets in the FCT. I have been privileged to be with him on several occasions where the minister has raised concern of manhole theft, vandalism of infrastructure -streetlights, traffic lights and others within the FCT. He is a man that’s result-oriented. So, my redeployment to FCT was without bias. It’s not because of any relationship.
Does it mean that he doesn’t have confidence in your predecessor?
No. Government is a continuum. Before my predecessor, there was somebody here. He (my predecessor) took over from somebody. Does it mean that he didn’t have confidence in that person? In government, people come and go. For instance, the person I am taking over from was nominated for a course – a strategic management course which is expected to take place for one year. It’s the same part of growth and development. It was not because the person was not performing or because he was trying to replace him with his own stooge. No. He recommended him for a strategic training. It’s a requirement for all management cadre for you to even move on. So, it’s still a good development. Everyone of us on this cadre will look forward to attend one training or the other. He is lucky to even be nominated. While you are nominating him for a course for one year, there must not be a vacuum in government. While he is proceeding somebody has to do the job. So, he looked around and I, being a commandant, I am qualified. I have the pedigree. I have the orientation. I have the experience to deliver.
If he had sent you to other commands, would you have accepted?
I would have accepted and performed exceptionally the way I will perform here. It doesn’t matter where you are taken. You don’t lobby for where you are going to. I didn’t lobby for it. Myself and himself never spoke about it for one day. He only announced it during the last Commandant General’s Conference. And that was the first time I was hearing it myself. And I was not the only one. There are some of my colleagues that were deployed to different strategic places.
Will it be right to say that you are the CG’s boy?
No. Everybody is CG’s boy as long as long as you wear this uniform. He is a father to all. He is not the type of person that gives preferential treatment to people.
But he has his favourites?
No. As long as you are doing what is expected of you. As long as you are not lazy, as long as you are working hard, as long as you are committed, as long as you are loyal, CG will recognise you and reward you accordingly. So, there’s no such thing as CG’s boy. All he requires from you is to be dedicated, to be committed to service and to deliver whenever you are given any assignment or mandate.
