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Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, ordered the posting of Idowu Owohunwa as the Commissioner of Police in Lagos State last Tuesday.
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He said his appointment was pending the approval of the Police Service Commission (PSC).
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Owohunwa assumed his new office on Tuesday, replacing the old occupant who has been promoted to the rank of the Assistant Inspector-General of Police.
Eko Hot Blog reports that a new Commissioner of Police, CP Idowu Owohunwa, has assumed duty at the Lagos State Police Command.
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The police spokesperson in Lagos, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, made the disclosure in a statement.
Owohunwa took over from CP Abiodun Alabi, fdc who has since been redeployed as Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2 Headquarters, Onikan, Lagos.
CP Owohunwa hails from Kabba, Kogi State and was commissioned into the Nigeria Police Force as a Cadet Officer (Course 19/1996) on 15th August, 1996 after graduating with a Second Class Upper Division Degree from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.
He emerged as the Overall Best Graduating Cadet Officer in Professional Studies at the Police Academy, Kano.
A Nigerian, USA, UK, Israel and Italy-trained police officer, CP Owohunwa holds a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice Studies and Policing from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, a study he undertook as a British Government Chevening Scholar. He also holds a Diploma in National Security Studies from the Centre for Strategic Studies, Galilee International Management Institute, Kibutz Mizra, Israel and a Certificate in Terrorism Financing Investigation (TFI) from the London Metropolitan Police.
He additionally holds a Diploma in Cybercrime Studies from the University of Virginia, USA.
CP Owohunwa is a graduate and Associate of the professionally prestigious Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Academy, Quantico, Virginia, USA. He has also attended the Global Peace Operations Initiative Course in Vicenza, Italy; US State Department sponsored Law Enforcement Executive Development Course in Gaborone, Botswana; the British Council Interaction Leadership Programme (2nd Cohort) for high-flying and young professionals; and the Intelligence Analysis and IIntelligenceLed Policing Courses.
The new police boss in Lagos was a member of the Nigerian Pilot Contingent that was deployed to the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to coordinate the post-war reform, restructuring and re-equipment programme of the Liberian National Police (LNP).
In his capacity as the Head of the Donors Aid and Model Police Station Development Team of the Mission, he specifically coordinated foreign donors’ intervention to support the reform plan of LNP and was also involved in the development of Model Police Station facilities and operational standards for the Liberian National Police. In this capacity, he won several United Nations Mission Awards for leadership excellence, professionalism, and integrity.
An officer with broad professional exposure stretching through operations, strategic management, investigation and intelligence, CP Owohunwa served as the Staff Officer to the 2006 Alh. Dan Madami-Chaired Presidential Committee on Nigeria Police Reform and was a former Staff Officer in the Office of the Inspector-General of Police.
He has at various times in his career, also served as Operations Officer in Ughelli Area Command, Delta State; Personal Assistant to the Commissioner of Police (Personnel & Welfare) Force Headquarters, Abuja; Divisional Crime Officer and 2i/c, National Assembly Complex Police Division, Abuja; O/C General Investigation Section, State CID, Lagos State Command; Divisional Police Officer, Eket Division, Akwa Ibom State Police Command; and the pioneer Head of the Intelligence and Crime Analysis Unit of the Nigeria Police Force Intelligence Bureau.
CP Owohunwa has also at various times, served as the Personal Assistant to IGP Solomon Arase (Rtd); Head of the Special Investigations Unit, FCID, Abuja; Head of the Security and Enforcement Unit of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Abuja; AC (Operations), Katsina State Police Command; AC (Administration), Zone 7 Police Headquarters, Abuja, and Assistant Director (Department of Internal Security), Office of the National Security Adviser, Abuja.
He holds the enviable professional record of being the only officer in the history of the Nigeria Police to have been appointed and re-appointed as the Principal Staff Officer to three different Inspectors-General of Police (PSO-IGP) over a period of about six years, having served in that capacity under IGP Solomon Arase (Rtd), IGP Mohammed Abubakar Adamu (Rtd) and IGP Usman Alkali Baba, the incumbent Inspector General of Police from where he was deployed as Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command.
An officer with flair for intellectual engagements, CP Owohunwa’s researched and published works include ‘Intelligence-Led Policing’ (Published in ‘The Monograph of Criminal Investigation’); ‘Anatomy of Police Corruption’ (Published in ‘Policing Nigeria in the 21st Century); ‘Deconstructing the Criminal Justice System, Policing and Police Accountability Process’ and ‘Private Security Sector in the Emerging National Security Architecture’ (both of which were published in Internal Security, Criminal Justice, and the Police in 2020).
He also undertook an ‘A-graded’ research on ‘Miscarriage of Justice and the Nigeria Police’ as a Postgraduate Student at the University of Leeds, UK. A reform-oriented officer, his policing vision is founded on the hybrid and intertwined models of citizens’ engagement, and intelligence-led and technology-driven policing.
CP Owohunwa brings to the Lagos Police leadership table a rich intellectual background, strategic policing exposure at the highest level of Force leadership, diverse policing knowledge, and expansive professional network towards providing requisite leadership that will positively change the policing narratives in the Centre of Excellence.
He is married to a Lagosian from Ikorodu, Lagos State and they are blessed with children.
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“The good people of Lagos State are enjoined to give CP Idowu maximum support in the discharge of his duty of piloting the affairs of safety and security of lives and property in the state,” Hundeyin added.
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