Last Monday, January 25th the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) commissioned an imposing edifice at the premises of the Nigeria Police Sports Complex, along Olumeni Street, Old GRA, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The impressive structure towers above the nearby one storey Police Officers Mess. It completely dwarfs the secretariat of the Police Officers Wives Association (POWA), just a few metres from it. This two storey master piece has six Bedroom flats. It was built by the NDDC, and will now become the official quarters of three Deputy Commissioners of Police and three Assistant Commissioners of Police in the Command.
The story of this edifice can not be complete without mentioning the Commissioner of Police who initiated it: Mbu Joseph Mbu, NPMC, psc+, now an Assistant Inspector General of Police and Commandant of the Police Staff College, Jos.
Do you remember him?
CP Mbu, as he then was, had a stormy time in Rivers State for being his own man. He was pilloried for insisting on doing his police duties as his conscience led him. Now the dust has settled, Mbu has traversed other police formations, and it is becoming clear he was never anybody’s lackey.
That much was proved in Lagos, where the Crime Reporters Association of Nigeria inducted him, into the CRAN Hall of Fame on, May 3, 2015 for supervising the most credible and only violence free election in Lagos State, since 1999. Mbu was the Assistant Inspector General of Police incharge of Zone 2, covering Lagos and Ogun States. Before the elections, a section of Nigerians had expressed apprehension that the top flight cop was posted to the Zone to act a written script. He proved them wrong.
According to a police officer who met Mbu for the first time in Lagos, “From a distance, Mbu is the enfant terrible. On a closer contact you will be disarmed by his humility and sense of duty”.
Another officer at Rivers State police command enthused, “Mbu talks about the Police with passion. He makes it clear to anyone who cares to listen that he has no other job than the Police. He drops his signature of projects wherever he is posted”.
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AIG Mbu is known for his discipline and zero tolerance for corruption and he is very frugal with public funds. As commissioner of Police in the FCT, he saved Ten Million Naira from funds given him and purchased two Mercedes Benz 1418 buses for Police welfare in the FCT command. On another occasion, he had returned Twenty Million Naira, out of Fifty Million Naira given to him for guber election in Edo State. And no officer on that election duty complained they were not well taken care of, rather they sang his praises for making them have their due.
Officers and men at the Rivers State Police Command speak of Mbu with passion. They say no Commissioner of Police, before or after him left the kind of imprints he left behind. This police officers quarters is one of them.
A police officer recalled the genesis of the project. According to him, on assuming duties in February 2013, Mbu had visited other sister security agencies. He said Mbu was particularly impressed with the NDDC projects he found in the military formation and had said to the hearing of his entourage; “if NDDC can build this for the army, they equally can build it for the police.” He got back to the office and arranged a meeting with the NDDC. He wrote for the project and followed up. The rest, as they say, is now history.
The police are particularly excited about this structure which has solved their accommodation problem. Mbu is equally credited for completely rehabilitating the official quarters of the Commissioner of Police, along Forces, Avenue in Old GRA. He also rehabilitated six Armoured Personal Carriers abandoned for several years in the Command before his arrival. He repaired over 26 vehicles that were left to decay, one of them now serves as Ambulance at the Police Hospital, along Bank Road, behind the State Judiciary complex.
According to a Senior Police Officer at the Command headquarters, Mbu carried out massive renovation works at Moscow Road, headquarter of the Rivers State Police Command, among several other projects. Yet, he was the only Commissioner of police that never canvassed for juicy placements for his relations in Oil Companies in Port Harcourt. He was the only Commissioner of Police that served for one year in Rivers State and never had land, or landed property in the choice GRA areas or anywhere else in Rivers State.”
However, what Mbu received in bashings as a result of misunderstanding his person, he got adequately recompensed by public acknowledgements and recognition of his good works. For instance, it was in Rivers State that he received Award in Johannesburg as the Most Crime Busting Police Chief in Africa. The Rivers State Police Command under him got Award as the Most Innovative Police Command in Nigeria, by Crime Watch Africa, South-Africa (2013). And to cap it, an appreciative Inspector General of Police, Rtd. IGP M.D. Abubakar, decorated him with the Nigeria Police Medal of Courage (NPMC)
As the NDDC Commissions this worth while project, they will receive encomiums for strengthening the bond of Police Community Partnerships. But the name Mbu, will be on the lips of every, Police officer, as they behold this edifice. It is a project borne out of his concern for the welfare of the Police.
