Olayinka Balogun: Supercop Missed By People of Edo

Frankly speaking, Edo people in general are not happy with the bad cònduct of most officers and men of Edo Police Command.

Everywhere you go, you hear people complaining that road blocks and checks in addition to police stations hàve been turned into money points for extorting bribes from both criminal and innocent suspects.

Media houses have echoed the anguishing cries of Edo people about unprofessional policing in the state. On the 27th September, 2026 for instance the People-Talk-To-People programme of Independent Radio, Benin discussed this same issue once again.

Mr Thomas Sado, an employee of the radio station and one of the crew members who presents as OBSERVER expressed his total disgust at the massive police corruption in fhe state. He noted that he has spoken to top police officers on the matter but not a single one of them had a working clue out of the mess.

After he spoke, the phone lines were open for public feedbacks on the subject. Behold, all the callers in unison stated that the corruption in the command is indeed sickening.

Well, not to worry. Hear the late business mogul, Chief M. K. O. Abiola: “A fish rots from the head"

If you do your extrapolation of Abiola's thesis, you will get some insight into why the police in Edo State to a large extent is fantastically corrupt and why the police brazenly collect bribes with advertised Ali Baba broad-daylight impunìty.

Yes, don't be deceived. If oga does not openly or discreetly tell his boys to collect bribes, they dare not do so.

The case of Olayinka Balogun, a former commissioner of police in Edo Police Command eloquently illustrates this fact.

He was deployed to Edo State from Ekiti State arriving with an armada of book sense, knowledge, skills and experiences in professional policing gathered from his trainings in Nigeria; his academic sojourns in the best police colleges across the world; as well as his tours of official duties all over Nigeria.

In addition, Olayinka Balogun fondly called OBB by his admirers came to Edo State with an indefatigably strong character of moral integrity to serve as a police commissioner.

His mission statement, therefore, was: ‘Service to humanity is the rent we pay to Allah/God for occupying the surface of the earth."

Given this humanistic ideology of his, Olayinka Balogun saw his exalted office as a public sacred trust. Hence, he collaborated with good Edo people to deal ruthlessly with all sizes of criminal elements in the state. At no time, did he construe his status as police commissioner as an altar of sin for milking Edo people of their hard-earned money.

During Olayinka Balogun's first meeting with his management team at the headquarters of Edo Police Command in Benin City he read out his riot act to the members.

His words: “I am not demanding any money from you or our surbordinates. I have zero tolerance for corruption. It is only through this attitude, we can fight corruption in the force."

For olayinka Balogun, talk is not cheap but expensive. So, he didn't say what he couldn't do. He was an astute police commissioner who knew the way of zero corruption in the force, showed the way towards it and led the way in robust affirmation of his anti-corruption agenda.

What did Olayinka Balogun do, to start with? He dismantled all regularized road blocks in Edo State allowing only occasional emergency nipping points for catching fleeing crimminals and intercepting contraband commodities.

Nevertheless, he approved routine police patrols punctuated with road check where the need arises. Furthermore, Olayinka Balogun in pursuance of his zero corruption credo enforced the law on free bail. He was able to achieve this feat by directing all the 39 divisional police officers to post the phone lines of all their principal officers and those at the command headquarters on their stations' walls. All members of the public were requested to avail themselves of these phone lines and call for help whenever any investigating police officer demands mòney for bail or other matters.

For Olayinka Balogun, there was no hiding place for any corrupt officers and men in Edo Police Command.

This wasn't all. Olayinka Balogun believed in the ethical rule of public accountability by all policemen under his command. It is for this reason he directed all the divisional police officers to take turns to appear on the hot seat of the popular Man Around Town programme of Independent Radio, Benin every Thursday to give account of their stewardship. Certainly, it was a classic case of do what I do because Olayinka Balogun himself never fails to show up at the station or other ones even if invited there informally. He always led by example.

Following his cue, the divisional police officers submitted themselves for public scrutiny at Man Around Town programme of Independent Radio, Benin station without fail.

Yakubu Mohamed, a chief superintendent of police, in charge of Esigie Police Station was at the station for his interactive session with Edo people on August 9, 2012. A highpoint of his presentation was that he had printed 2000 personal identity cards in line with the policy of Olayinka Balogun' that all divisional police office must liberalize public access to themselves. Out of the lot, Yakubu Mohammed revealed that he had distributed over 1000 cards to people.

What is more, Olayinka Balogun installed functional communication gadgets at the command's headquarters which enabled him to quickly reach out to the remotest divisional police officers thus strengthening his gospel of grassroots community policing on which he is a notable authority. Also, there was an operational standing order from Olayinka Balogun that all distress calls from people must be promptly responded to without social class discrimination. In the same vein, he compelled all divisional police officers to collaborate in intelligence sharing as well as crime prevention and fighting.

To motivate officers and men of the command, he built strong interpersonal relationships with them rewarding the hardworking ones while decisively sanctioning those who crossed the red line of professional indiscipline in conduct.

Moreover, Olayinka Balogun ensured that all operational departmeñts of the command always got its due quota of vehicles donated to it by government or pubĺic-spirited individuals for field work. For instance, he didn't divert for family or personal use any of the 50 vehicles given to the command by Oshiomhole administration on April 5, 2012. He distributed all the vehicles to the departments which needed them after consultation with his management team.

Additionally, he deployed well-nutured sniffer and alsatian dogs to the relevant department to assist it in crime detection and crowd control, respectively.

Too true, Edo State witnessed passionate, pro-people professional policing during the time of Olayinka Balogun. Then, people proudly claimed ownership of policing in the state, a posturing that made them trust the police as their true friend.

French TV/24 in 2025 says: “Trust is not automatic but is earned and cultivated."

Because people trusted the police command, individuals sometimes ran to Olayinka Balogun to unburden their complaints. There was this man in Benin Metropolis who rushed to him informing him that he paid a dealer money to supply him with cement which has not been despite several visits to the store of the dealer.

Promptly, Olayinka Balogun referred the complaining man to the media ombudsman, Efe Osafuomwan who doubles as anchor of Man Around Town programme of Independent Radio, Benin for arbitration on the matter. Within twenty-four hours the errant cement dealer quickly delivered the wares to the aggrieved complainant!!. The fear of Olayinka Balogun was the beginning of wisdom. You don't dare him. This is because he was a good student of Prof Macgregor's Theory X and Y.

Yes, he knew when to use the motivating sweet, juicy carrot to reward excellent performance añd also he recognised when to deploy the big stick of correction on erring deviants while combining fluid and rigid police bureaucracy as a pragmatic format of delivering effective smooth policing to the public.

Lest I forget, Olayinka Balogun was a reading, , workaholic police commissioner who believed that "to rest is to undergo oxidation and rust.'

Much more, his whole lifestyle is governed by this maxim: “I always want to ensure that wherever I work is good for everyone."

He demonstrated this fact in Edo State just as he has done in all places where he worked.

For instance, a checklist revealed that during his tenure he rehabilitated all the old dilapidated buildings inherited by him at the headquarters of the command. Also, he built new office blocks there to alleviate accommodation problems.

As if these are not enough, he built a mosque for muslim policemen and a church for the christian police community.

He equally reburbished the police main gate; carried out a massive aesthetic landscaping of the command headquarters' premises; planted flowers: and mowed the lawn regularly to add alluring beauty to the clinically neat premises.

Now, let me shock you. Olayinka Balogun also ensured that detainees benefitted from his development largesse. He gave them better cells attached with bathroom and toilet facilities.

Another shocking thing Olayinka Balogun did, unlike his predeccessors, was that in 2012 he printed and distributed a detailed, informative police diary as well as greeting cards to mark christmas that year and the new year in 2013. A character trait with which Olayinka Balogun operated as a police commissioner was divine piety taken from Suratul Hajj 22/37.

The quote: “It is neither their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah/ God but it is pìety from you that reaches Him"

When you add this trait of piety of Olayinka Balogun to all his other traits you can understand why performed exceedingly well as a police commissioner in Edo State. Also, you can reallise why the people of the state miss him so much after leaving over a decade ago.

True, we lost him in Edo State. Our comfort, however, is that the country recognizes his huge, magnificient talents. This is moreso now that he has a Ph.D in community policing and the Police Service Commission has appointed him a consultant on community policing and human rights.