I KNOW WHO YOU ARE: BETWEEN IMPOSTORS AND IMPERSONATORS

Road Safety 

The dateline was 2005. The State was Imo. The route was Aba-Owerri Road. The time was the rush hour along the then Aba-Owerri route that was notorious for heavy traffic gridlock because of the state of the road, and the activities of mechanics along the road, just after Naze, if you were coming from Aba.

I had just assumed duty as Sector Commander of the State. It was my first Command appointment in a career that spanned twenty-eight years. Other Command appointments were to follow; Sector Commander, Federal Capital Territory, Lagos Sector, as well as appointment as Zonal Commanding Officer, in Abuja, FCT, Jos, the Plateau State capital as well as in Port Harcourt, the River State capital among others.

In Owerri, the Imo State capital, my challenge was not just to bring some level of sanity in traffic rule compliance but fundamentally, in addressing the daily traffic gridlock which had become an embarrassment to the existence of the Command and a nuisance to travelers.

We rolled out numerous strategies. Special patrols. Improved and enhance advocacies. Creative stakeholders’ engagement which included courtesy calls to the mechanic village team members whom we, identified as a major stumbling block to solving the problem. We also paid similar visits to the timber shade (ogbo-osisi) members. Some of their members were mobilized into the Special Marshal to strengthen traffic control within their area which equally had its fair share of traffic in the state.

While these strategies were yielding semblance of improvements especially with regards to stakeholder mobilization and involvement, commercial vehicle as well as private car drivers from Aba among other road users were yet to sync with the new measures. As Sector Commander whose office was situated along the Aba-Owerri Road, it was embarrassing to be trapped in traffic daily on my way home

On this fateful day, I was heading home but detoured when I observed that my patrol team along the route were overpowered by a recalcitrant driver. I pulled over to help. My sight emboldened my men. I took control and ordered the particular vehicle to pull over. The driver, assuming that I was one of the normal routine officers initially declined. I insisted on my order, but while he was still displaying his madness, operatives of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency, cited me and promptly joined in apprehending the driver.

Despite the presence of the armed NDLEA operatives, the driver boldly identified himself as a soldier attached to the Amphibious Battalion, Port Harcourt. When quizzed further, he failed to provide any form of identity. I ordered that he be taken to the NDLEA Command Headquarters, also situated along the Aba -Road. After series of interrogation, in company of the Commandant of the State NDLEA, I called the Brigade Commander of the Nigerian Army at Obinze who ordered that the impostor be brought to Obinze. 

At Obinze, the impostor finally opened up. Thereafter pressure mounted on my office from concerned citizens, pleading for mercy when they learned of the move to prosecute him in the court. After series of pressure, in concert with the Brigade Commander, the imposter was released after spending about two weeks in detention. He promised never to impersonate any security operative.

I do not know if you read my piece last week. Erroneously, I said 5000 deaths occur on our roads daily. The correct figure is about 5000 deaths annually. Please kindly disregard my unfortunate error. Meanwhile, the Owerri incident is just one out of numerous cases. 

Some of the impostors and impersonators, are civilian impostors. Others, are political imposters. Some may be genuine operatives of security agencies. A particular incident happened in the Federal Capital Territory along the Abuja-Lokoja Road. I was leading a special patrol when a vehicle was spotted driving on the wrong side of the road. 

When the driver was ordered to pull over, he reluctantly did and while my men were questioning his bad driving behavior, he reached out to his holster and pulled out his service pistol, threatening to shoot and kill whoever dared to stop him. With the advantage of number, my men overpowered him and brought sanity to bear on the situation.

There are several cases and worse ones too. Civilians. Politicians. Security operatives; serving, retired. Fraudsters. Touts. Learned and illiterates. There was a case of a senior security officer who came flaunting his state house credentials as basis for flouting traffic rules. His ego and air of superiority ate him up as he questioned the right of my ‘’boy scout’’ men to pull over as a grade A/superior uniform personnel over for mere traffic infraction. 

The treats of these characters know no bounds. In fact, one impostor after failing in his braggadocious conduct, described my men as below the rats in his office. What was their offence. They arrested him for traffic infractions on a Saturday morning and because he felt he had the ears of the high and mighty, came with so much arrogance because of his so called ’oti nkpu(hype-man) who incidentally was the head of one of the security Agencies.

Incidentally, when the head called me on the matter, I explained all that happened and how the offender denigrated my men which got the head of the security Agency really infuriated. Thereafter, he warned him never to call his number again, since he doesn’t have respect for uniform personnel. He left my command humbled with his face bowed to the ground.

Even foreigners mostly those from the Asian stock rank among these. They will assault you and threaten to call a head of a security Agency to deal ruthlessly with you. All of these have joined the bandwagon of impostors and impersonators who challenge you with ‘’Do you know who I Am’’ mentality.

I don’t know if you read my piece titled, DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM. If, you didn’t, I plead that you do. In that piece I tried to understand why impostors and impersonators suffer identity crisis for their deviant behavior. I wondered why people who are nobody but usurpers, pretenders of power, authority and wealth delude themselves. These are people we call in Nigeria, ‘money miss road, flouting infinitesimal cash. These are impostors, eaten up by their big ego, all because they were pulled over by a Road Marshal for questioning over traffic infraction

These impostors flaunt traffic rules because of several unjustified reasons such as a desire for an uninterrupted trip and their claim to be in a hurry to attend an urgent meeting with nonexistent VIPs among others. In the real sense, all these braggadocious conduct is a show off to evade arrest by law enforcement

These are people with a strong sense of entitlement not earned who display this posture to security operatives to evade arrest. I counselled them to always before hitting the road, reminde themselves that road traffic crashes, respects no class, no color, no status, no religion and no sex.

They should always look at the mirror and remind themself that death is the ultimate for every soul; death is also the likely penalty for chronic traffic violators. And all irrespective of status, age or sex, go seven feet under without any accompanying paraphernalia of wealth, power or position

These victims often verbally and physically assault as well as dehumanize their victims. Often, you find them jump traffic lights, use their phones behind the wheel, overtake dangerously even at bends and at built up areas as well as exceed speed limits. It doesn’t matter if the driven vehicle is borrowed or bears a government number place whose identity should warrant decency.

If they are part of a convoy or the convoy, the life of other road users means absolutely nothing to them as they are ready to drive you off the road and if confronted, order their security details to ‘waste you’, bragging that ‘nothing will happen’.