The ROAD To Destiny: Applause For My Selfless Neighbour By Yemi Olowolabi

Going by common sense, human calculations and statutory calendar, Olatunji Disu’s impressive career has reached a rippling crescendo! Everything pointed in this direction. First, having been born on April 13, 1966, he was billed to retire from the Nigeria Police Force in April 2026. But what seemed scary was a subtle whimsical agenda pushed through some obsequious blogs. The erstwhile Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun was battling with the scandalous revelations of a mysterious transfer of the sum of 100 million naira into his son’s account in Sterling Bank. The money was said to have been moved from the Anambra State Government’s Security Fund. Tongues wagged as citizens were outraged on the impropriety of such a transaction that smelt like a heist. Police Spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin later explained that the transfer was done in error. That is, someone mistakenly transferred the money into account of Egbetokun’s son, Victor. And that the transaction has been duly reversed. The story of the mistaken transfer was first exposed by Sahara Reporters, an online newspaper published by Omoyele Sowore, irrepressible civil rights activist. Sowore dragged Egbetokun publicly and called for his resignation. Yet there was a sudden attempt to change the narratives. It started with fragments of fabrications and snippets of falsehood, all blaming Disu for the ‘leakage’ of the reports of investigations that nailed Egbetokun’s son. Disu was the Head of the Special Fraud Unit, SFU in Abuja. Interestingly, purveyors of the fairy tale urged Egbetokun to cudgel Disu, accusing him albeit vaguely of complicity in the leakage of the questionable transaction. Those familiar with Disu’s track record dismissed the cyber hatred as a mere bunkum. The super cop continued the good as the boss of SFU. From his previous sensitive postings as Commander of Rapid Response Squad, RRS, Head of Intelligence Response Team, IRT, Commissioner of Police, Rivers State, Commissioner of Police, FCT, among others, Disu has always distinguished himself as an officer with vast knowledge, striking etiquette and puritanical commitment to high ethical standards. But the more we ignored the online rats, the more they were gaining traction with their satanic agenda. Obviously, they were hirelings of some invincible forces within the police force. Disu couldn’t be bothered. He stayed focused on his mandate, dismantling the stronghold of fraudsters. Suddenly, on February 2, 2026 Egbetokun redeployed Disu from SFU and took him to Lagos as Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Force Criminal Investigation Department, FCID, Lagos Annex, Alagbon. It seemed something was fishing. It was a classic case of the Yoruba idiom _the witch cried yesterday, the child died today_ Disu was unperturbed, though his friends were perplexed. On February 11, nine days after the posting, he resumed at FCID, Alagbon. He took over from the outgoing AIG Margaret Ocalla.

For Olatunji Disu, that was the beginning of a new journey, the beginning of the end of his legendary career in the police. With just about 70 days to his 60th birthday and retirement, he must have been putting finishing touches to his pull-out ceremony. Disu’s family, friends and associates were looking forward to the homecoming of a gallant officer. But it didn’t happen. Rather, the unexpected cancelled the expected, birthing unspeakable felicitations. Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed Disu as the Inspector General of Police! The news upturned the Apple’s cart and left many of us in a delirium of joy. ‘Us’ ? Yes. I am not a member of the Disu’s family. Neither am I his friend but we are related and bound by fellowship of humanity. Much more than that, the new IGP is my neighbour. We have lived together on the same street for about two decades. Though Disu is hardly available, his aura is everywhere in the estate. Police patrol vehicles are common sights in our neighbourhood. Not many people know who influences the surveillance. In, sometimes, comical whispers or archetypal cynicism, some visitors often conclude that we must have some very powerful people among the residents to have earned us this type of ubiquitous security cover in our domain. They may be right. We have a couple of highly influential residents in our street. We used to have an AIG Oscar Moronkeji. We had Baba Ebun Sofunde, SAN. We still have civil rights campaigner, Monday Ubani, SAN and a host of others including the founding deputy editor in Chief of TELL magazine, Dele Omotunde. But we owe our foolproof coverage to Olatunji Disu, the selfless, super cop who chose to be his neighbour’s keeper. invisible. Available yet invisible, he is like an anscestral spirit that hearkens to the supplications of his people without necessarily appearing to them. I have lived on the same street for more than 20 years, I have never bumped into Disu for once. In fact, the only time I have had a physical contact with him was outside the estate. That was in 2018 when I was serving as Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation. The new police boss and I were inducted as members of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR at the Conference Hall of Lagos Chambers Of Commerce and Industry LCCI. We exchanged contacts and have only spoken twice since 2018. Earlier in 2002, our paths crossed albeit briefly. He was the ADC to the then Governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I had led a team of TELL magazine editors, comprising Stephen Ubana, Business Editor and Segun Olakitan, Photo Editor to interview Governor Tinubu. The interview was arranged by Dele Alake, then Commissioner for Information and Strategy, now Honourable Minister of Solid Minerals. Disu was decent and courteous as he escorted us to the stairways after the hot interview that lasted two hours. The 2018 encounter was an opportunity to reminisce but the time was too short. So, I was one of those looking forward to have him back in our estate as an elder statesman. It seems we’re still going to wait for a while. Nigeria needs him. He had a lot to offer in leadership, loyalty, integrity, professionalism and elastic capacity. Born as Ridwan Olatunji Adio Disu, ROAD, the IGP is a child of destiny who seemed to have followed a divine path to the Pinnacle of his career. Only a man duly prepared and chosen by God would have emerged victorious in the midst of pestilences and malfeasances of those testing times of whimsical rumours. Unarguably, Disu is a man of destiny. Such men pass through seemingly mythical road to the actualisation of divine mandates. That’s the story of Olatunji Disu, the ordinary man with extraordinary grace.