Obituary: Tafa Balogun – the Police Chief who became first high-profile convict of Obasanjo’s anti-corruption war
Mustapha ‘Tafa’ Balogun, Nigeria’s 11th indigenous Inspector General of Police, who died on Thursday, August 4, 2022, was part of a thin blue line between hero and villain.
While he is largely remembered as the first high-profile Nigerian public official to be convicted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Tafa will also be remembered as the IGP who oversaw the promotion of 170,000 police officers in three years, more than the promotions that had been carried out since 1930 when the Nigeria Police force was founded.
A family source said Balogun died at a hospital in Lekki, Lagos, on Thursday, August 4, 2022.
Members of the Nigerian ruling class are always seen as invincibles who can get away with any impunity because the system has a way of protecting them.
Even their allies, borrowing the words of President Muhammadu Buhari, “behave like spoilt children, breaking everything and bringing disorder to the house.” Probably because they are confident their tracks will be covered.
It came as a surprise to Nigerians in 2005 when the EFCC secured its first landmark conviction of a high-profile official. The nation’s Inspector General of Police (IGP), Tafa Balogun, was forced to resign over corruption allegations.
His arrest and conviction sent shockwaves across Nigeria and set members of the political class on their toes. If Tafa could go down, nobody was safe, many thought. After him, some former governors like Joshua Dariye of Plateau State, Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State and other high-profile Nigerians like Bode George, Abdulrasheed Maina of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) have also been convicted of corruption.
Given Tafa’s long-standing closeness to then President Olusegun Obasanjo, his arrest and trial by the EFCC led by a junior police officer, Nuhu Ribadu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police at that time, came as a surprise to many Nigerians.
Tafa’s profile:
Mustapha Balogun, a political science graduate from the University of Lagos and a law graduate from the University of Ibadan, joined the Nigeria Police Force in 1973 at the age of 26.
Fondly called Tafa Balogun, the Ila-Orogun (Osun state) born police officer rose from Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Principal Staff Officer (PSO) to former IGP, Muhammadu Gambo, Deputy Commission of Police in Edo State, Commissioner of Police in Delta, Rivers and Abia state and later AIG Zone One, Kano, to become Nigeria’s 11th indigenous IGP in 2002 at age 55.
It took him 29 years to get there, but his 32 years police career came crashing down in less than a year.
The scandal
In late 2004, Tafa Balogun started appearing conspicuously on the front pages of newspapers, not for the exploits of his officers but the wrong reasons.
The police chief was in the news for massive corruption allegations, which included taking bribes from politicians and criminals and diversion of police funds to private accounts. He was accused of stealing and laundering of over $100 million from the Police coffers.
It was not the era of social media where young Nigerians could trend hashtags to call for his removal. But the noise about Tafa in the media was deafening. It became an embarrassment to the government and he was forced to resign in January 2005.
“I called him and said, Tafa, why do you have to destroy your name and career even though you will forever enjoy your privilege and salary as a former IGP for life?” Obasanjo said in 2017.
“On a particular day, Balogun was at the villa to see me; Ribadu, was also around and threatened to arrest him over the report. I had a hunch that Nuhu may leak the report to the press as he was close to them. I immediately called Balogun to give his letter of resignation. I told him if I don’t get the letter in 30 minutes, I will dismiss you.”
After his resignation, Tafa was arrested and charged by the EFCC for ₦5 billion in official corruption. Knowing the odds were against him with overwhelming evidence, he made a plea bargain, and in December 2005, a Federal High Court in Abuja sentenced him to six months in jail.
Justice Binta Nyako, in her ruling, said Balogun was a first-time offender and had “shown remorse”.
He was ordered to pay ₦4 million and forfeit assets worth $150 million to the government. After spending part of his jail term at the Abuja National Hospital, he was released in February 2006.
He may not have gotten the kind of sentence many expected, but seeing the country’s former police chief in handcuffs as he was being hauled before the court by junior police officers was chilling for many Nigerians.
Life after jail
In October 2015, the EFCC said Balogun forfeited ₦2,258,100,516.87 in 11 bank accounts, including accruing interest.
In 2020, a Presidential panel which probed the suspended acting EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, reopened Tafa Balogun’s case file.
Tafa’s case and seizure of assets were reportedly handled by Magu dating when he was in the Economic Governance Unit of the EFCC.
To his credit, under Tafa’s three years tenure as IGP, over 1,200 police officers were reportedly dismissed for acts bordering on official corruption.
According to a November 2005 report in Nigeria’s Independent newspaper, “between 2002 and 2004, the Nigeria Police arrested a total of 19,135 robbery suspects and recovered 2,148 stolen vehicles. 170,000 policemen were promoted, more than the promotions that had been carried out in the force from 1930 when the Nigeria Police force was founded”.
While much has changed in the years since Tafa Balogun left office as the IGP, some critical aspects have not – there is still widespread corruption in the police system, and police brutality is still prevalent.
After serving his jail term, Tafa Balogun reportedly retired to a luxury home in a high-end Lagos neighbourhood. In November 2020, he was conferred a traditional chieftaincy title of ‘Oluomo of Igbominaland’ by all first-class Igbomina traditional rulers in Kwara and Osun states.
