Know Who You Are: Between Impostors And Impersonators

The dateline was 2005. The authorities was Imo. The way was the Aba-Owerri Road. The clip was unreserved hr on the past Aba-Owerri route, notorious for dense postulation gridlock owed to the authorities of the roadworthy and the activities of mechanics on the road, conscionable aft Naze, if you were coming from Aba. I had conscionable assumed work arsenic Sector Commander of the state. It was my archetypal Command assignment successful a vocation that spanned twenty-eight years. Other Command appointments were to follow, including Sector Commander, Federal Capital Territory, Lagos Sector, arsenic good arsenic appointments arsenic Zonal Commanding Officer successful Abuja, FCT, Jos, the Plateau State capital, and successful Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, among others.

In Owerri, the superior of Imo State, my situation was not conscionable to present immoderate level of sanitization and postulation regularisation compliance but fundamentally to code the regular postulation gridlock that had go an embarrassment to the Command’s beingness and a nuisance to travelers.

We rolled retired galore strategies, including peculiar patrols, improved and enhanced advocacies, and originative stakeholders’ engagement, which included courtesy calls to the mechanic colony squad members, whom we identified arsenic a large stumbling artifact to solving the problem. We besides paid akin visits to the timber shadiness (ogbo-osisi) members. Some of their members were mobilized into the Special Marshal to fortify postulation power wrong their area, which arsenic had its just stock of postulation successful the state.

While these strategies were yielding a semblance of improvement, particularly successful stakeholder mobilization and involvement, commercialized conveyance drivers, arsenic good arsenic backstage car drivers from Aba, among different roadworthy users, were yet to sync with the caller measures. As Sector Commander, whose bureau was situated on the Aba-Owerri Road, it was embarrassing to beryllium trapped successful postulation regular connected my mode home.

On this fateful day, I was heading location but detoured erstwhile I observed that my patrol squad on the way was being overpowered by a recalcitrant driver. I pulled implicit to help. My beingness emboldened my men. I took power and ordered the peculiar conveyance to propulsion over. The driver, assuming that I was 1 of the mean regular officers, initially declined. I insisted connected my order, but portion helium was inactive displaying his defiance, operatives of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency cited maine and promptly joined successful apprehending the driver.

Despite the beingness of the equipped NDLEA operatives, the operator boldly identified himself arsenic a worker attached to the Amphibious Battalion, Port Harcourt. When quizzed further, helium failed to supply immoderate signifier of identification. I ordered that helium beryllium taken to the NDLEA Command Headquarters, besides situated on the Aba-Owerri Road. After a bid of interrogations, successful the institution of the Commandant of the State NDLEA, I called the Brigade Commander of the Nigerian Army astatine Obinze, who ordered that the impostor beryllium brought to Obinze.

At Obinze, the impostor yet opened up. Thereafter, unit mounted connected my bureau from acrophobic citizens, pleading for mercy erstwhile they learned of the determination to prosecute him successful court. After a bid of pressures, successful performance with the Brigade Commander, the imposter was released aft spending astir 2 weeks successful detention. He promised ne'er to impersonate immoderate information operative.

I bash not cognize if you work my portion past week. Erroneously, I said 5,000 deaths hap connected our roads daily. The close fig is astir 5,000 deaths annually. Please kindly disregard my unfortunate error. Meanwhile, the Owerri incidental is conscionable 1 retired of galore cases. Some of the impostors and impersonators are civilian impostors. Others are governmental impostors. Some whitethorn beryllium genuine operatives of information agencies.

A peculiar incidental happened successful the Federal Capital Territory on the Abuja-Lokoja Road. I was starring a peculiar patrol erstwhile a conveyance was spotted driving connected the incorrect broadside of the road. When the operator was ordered to propulsion over, helium reluctantly did so, and portion my men were questioning his atrocious driving behavior, helium reached retired to his holster and pulled retired his work pistol, threatening to sprout and termination whoever dared to halt him. With the vantage of numbers, my men overpowered him and brought sanity to carnivore connected the situation.

There are respective cases and worse ones too. Civilians, politicians, information operatives – serving and retired, fraudsters, touts, learned and illiterate. There was a lawsuit of a elder information serviceman who came flaunting his authorities location credentials arsenic a ground for flouting postulation rules. His ego and aerial of superiority consumed him arsenic helium questioned the close of my “Boy Scout” men to propulsion him implicit for a specified postulation infraction, being a people A/superior azygous personnel.

The threats of these characters cognize nary bounds. In fact, 1 impostor, aft failing successful his braggadocious conduct,...