For the immediate past Sango-Otta Area Commander, It was sunset at dawn as he bade the world farewell.
Muyideen Alamu Obe, a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) breathed his last after battling an unknown ailment for six months ironically, shortly after he was decorated with his new rank of DCP.
A humility personified, an amiable, cultured and sociable exemplary officer of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Obe, a devout Muslim, will be fondly remembered by everyone privileged to have met him, whether in the course of discharging his duty or privately.
DSP Obe was an unassuming, loveable and intelligent police officer with a sparkling oratory trait that endeared him to officers and men of the Force, including his superiors, who held him in high esteem.
It was all gloom at his residence in the Alagbon area of Owode-Yewa near Idiroko, Ogun State, even as scores troop in with the majority, except for a few who knew he had been down with an ailment, apparently in disbelief and wanted to ascertain if indeed the kind and large-hearted, highly principled, uncrowned ambassador of the Police Force, had bid this sinful world goodbye.
The list of sympathizers was endless, from the state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, who came in his capacity as the number one police officer in the state, as well as representative of the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Alkali Baba Usman.
Also present to condole with the family were the state Chairperson of the Police Officers Wives Association (POWA), Mrs Bankole, and her entourage; Area Commanders of Ilaro, Sagamu and Agbara, including Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) of Sango-Otta and Agbara, as well as officers and men from the Force.
Others were representatives of the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) from the state Sango-Otta Area Command and Division, led by its chairman, Architect Popoola.
The scepticism concerning the veracity of the news soon turned into reality as the body of Obe was lowered beneath the surface of the earth at his residence, where sympathizers glowingly extolled his virtues as a committed and dedicated, unequalled officer in the area of conflict resolution.
Described as “an astute administrator and a down-to-earth symbol of decency, a position he unwaveringly displayed and maintained throughout his career as a policeman, I cannot but declare that the Nigeria Police and, indeed, his admirers, including all of us with whom DCP Obe closely worked with, will sorely miss his tactfulness”, the state Commissioner of Police, CP Lanre Bankole said.
Bamidele Job, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) and the DPO of Onipanu Division, in his assessment of the late officer, said: “When I think of DCP Obe’s humour and simple nature of fairness in the discharge of his duties, both to officers and the civil society, he was a special specie. He was correctional and not bullying. He was a role model every one of his subordinates will want to emulate.