The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Egbetokun Olukayode Adeolu, yesterday at the Goodluck Jonathan Peacekeeping Hall, Force Headquarters, Abuja, decorated newly promoted Senior Police Officers with their new ranks amidst cheers from their families, friends, and professional colleagues.
This was sequel to the recent promotion approved by the Police Service Commission on the basis of merit, requisite experience, years of dedicated service, and academic records.
A statement made available to newsmen by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Niger State Command, DSP Wasiu Abiodun, said a total of 38 Senior Police Officers were decorated comprising Deputy Inspectors-General of Police (DIGs) Bala Ciroma, and Frank Emeka Mba, mni; fourteen (14) Assistant Inspectors-General of Police including AIGs Abubakar Lawal, fdc; Alhassan Aminu (Rtd.); Abdul Umar, psc, fdc; Williams Adebowale, psc(+), fdc; Shettima Zannah; Ebong Eyibio Ebong, psc, mni; Adepoju Ayinde Ilori; Okon Okon Effiong, fdc; Echeng Eworo Echeng; Susan Ukpanukiema Horsefall; Bankole Lanre Sikiru; Oladimeji Yomi Olanrewaju; Odama Paul Ojeka, and Shehu Sani Gwarzo, as well as 22 Commissioners of Police.
In attendance were the Executive Governor of Imo State, His Excellency, Sen. Hope Uzodimma; the Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, His Excellency, Dr. Akon Etim; the Deputy Senate President, Sen. Barau Jibrin, and other distinguished Members of the National Assembly; IGP Usman Alkali Baba (Rtd.); Defense Attaches to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China; the Force Management Team; serving and retired Senior Police Officers; families of promoted officers; and other dignitaries.
The Inspector-General of Police, while congratulating the officers, charged them to discharge the schedules of their new ranks within the dictates of the rule of law and citizens’ expectations; demonstrate exceptional critical thinking ability; manifest sound professional judgment in all their decisions; and exhibit high strategic management and operational capacity with the hindsight that all actions and inactions will be accounted for.
A Police Inspector serving with the Niger State Police Command, Gbenga Fajuyi, has been sentenced to a total term of 22 years in the Correctional Centre by a Minna Senior Magistrate Court 4 for impregnating his 13-year-old biological daughter.
The court presided over by Senior Magistrate Christy Barau, while passing the judgement, described the convict as a monster who, as a law enforcement officer that was supposed to protect the little girl, ended up putting her into adulthood.
He was found guilty of three-count charges of unlawful sexual intercourse, incest, impregnating a female student, and criminal intimidation.
According to the police prosecutor, Inspector Lawrence Owette, the three-count charges contravened Section 18 (2) of the Niger State Child Right Law 2010, Section 390 25 (3), and 397 B of the penal code.
The police first Information Report, marked SMC/MN, CR/06/2023, which was made available in court and obtained by Newsline, stated that Gbenga Fajuyi, age 47, sometime in 2019, in the Ungwan Nasarawa area of Tafa Local Government, lured his biological daughter, an SS1 student of Government Day Secondary School Sabon-Wuse, into his room and forcefully had sexual intercourse with her.
"As a result, she was put into a family way and delivered a baby girl, and you warned her that if she told anybody, you would kill her.
During the police Investigation, you, Gbenga Fajuyi, confessed to the commission of the offense. After delivery, you took the new-born baby to a nearby river and strangled the baby to death".
When the charges were read to him by the Presiding Senior Magistrate Christy Barau, he pleaded guilty to the charges, but the court turned it into not guilty and told the police Prosecutor that, in view of the serious nature of the offense, the court would commence a full trial in the case.
She requested that the police prosecutor prove his case and bring along his witnesses and evidence to enable the court to give him the maximum punishment in accordance with the offenses he committed.
During the trial, the prosecutor called the investigating police officer, the mother of the girl, and the girl, who gave vivid pictures of how her father had sexual intercourse with her at 12 years of age until he impregnated her at 13 years of age.
While delivering her Judgement, Senior Magistrate Christy Barau, described the police inspector as a monster and a disgrace to the police.
"It is sad that this convict, who is a police officer and law enforcement officer saddled with the responsibility of protecting life and property or fighting crime in society, one would expect him to go the extra mile to protect his own family.
"But he could be this inhuman toward his own biological daughter, a little girl, by putting her through all these horrible experiences of having to rape her at such a tender age, forcing her into becoming an adult, and denying her childhood", she submitted.
She therefore pronounced that he was to spend the next 22 years in prison without the option of a fine, and the sentence was to run concurrently.
