Tafa Balogun, a former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), has passed away.
Late yesterday, family sources provided an unspecific confirmation of his demise. Four days before turning 75, he passed away.
The 21st IGP was the previous head of the Nigerian Police Force, whose notorious trial for corruption garnered international attention in 2005.
After leaving his position in the government of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the former chief cop of the federation, born in Ila-Orangun, Osun State, was disciplined for stealing.
The late Balogun, who was born on August 8th, 1947, participated in Force Training’s Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Course 3.
Tafa, who served in a number of police commands across the federation and received promotions when they were due, once served as Muhammadu Gambo’s principal staff officer (PSO), the former inspector general of police.
He served as Delta State’s first police commissioner as well as Edo State’s deputy commissioner of police (DCP). In the states of Rivers and Abia, he was also CP.
Balogun, a fellow of Nigeria’s National War College, the country’s top military school, later rose to the position of Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Zone One Police Command, Kano, from which he was appointed the 21st IGP on March 6, 2002.
When Balogun was charged in the Federal High Court in Abuja on April 4, 2005, for allegedly embezzling and laundering more than $100 million during his three years as police chief, the case gained international attention and became largely infamous.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), an organization that fights corruption, brought 70 allegations against the former IGP, spanning the years from 2002 to 2004, under the leadership of Nuhu Ribadu, a relatively inexperienced official.
Balogun struck a plea agreement with the judge in exchange for giving back the majority of the goods and cash that he is said to have stolen.
He received a six-month prison term.
Justice Binta Nyako stated during sentencing that her decision took into account the “fact” that Balogun was the first offender and had displayed remorse.
The court ordered him to pay N500,000 on each of the eight allegations against him, for a total of N4 million.
He collapsed on his seat before the Abuja High Court on June 29, 2005, for example, and other highly unentertaining dramatic images were shown to the nation while the trial was ongoing.
The former police chief was found guilty and given concurrent sentences of six months for each crime after entering a guilty plea to eight of the 56 counts that directly affected him.
It was the first trial of its kind in the history of the force.
Balogun completed his sentence, serving a portion of it at the National Hospital in Abuja, and was freed on February 9, 2006.
