IT was a rainy Friday morning, last August when The ICIR crew met Emmanuel Ogwuche popularly known as ‘Emma Police’ while performing his duty as the Chief Security Officer (CSO) at a rehabilitation home for drug survivors in Abuja.
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Sharp and smart, he greeted and ushered the ICIR team into the building with a pleasant smile.
“My name is Emmanuel Ogwuche, popularly known as Emma Police. What can I do for you?” he asked.
That was the beginning of a long conversation that took us through the life of a young man whose use of drugs drastically changed the trajectory of his life.
Emma was born in the 80’s into a family of eight including his parents. His father was a security man, and his mother was a market trader.
He started his nursery and primary education at a private school in Kaduna, he wasn’t doing well academically, this led to a change in school.
“I started school but in my family, I can say my brain was not ready for school; that was how everything started going bad in my life. When they moved me to a government school in Kaduna, my mates laughed at me. My parents occasionally beat me so whenever I left home and got to my school gate, I would pull my uniforms and put in the bag and follow all these ‘bad boys'”, he said in an emotional-laden voice.
To avoid school, Emma started picking cans for sale to recyclers and was introduced to drug at that stage.
‘My entry into the world of hard drugs’
After avoiding school because he could not cope with academic rigours, Emma joined a group of young boys in his community and was introduced to hard drugs.
Within a short while he started smoking ‘solution gum’ and later graduated to ‘Indian hemp.’
According to him, his foray into drugs prevented him from furthering his education as all his other siblings graduated successfully.
Not wanting to be left out, he told his father he wanted to learn how to make furniture.
After completing his training as a furniture maker, he proceeded to join the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
The journey into the Nigeria Police Force
In January 2000, Emma started his police training in Kaduna. However, instead of learning police rules and tactics, his attention was on illicit drug use.
“I started using heroin, inside the police college; that’s where I found the substance,” he stated.
Off to Lagos
After Emma successfully graduated from the police college he was posted to Lagos, to start his career as a policeman. His expectations were very high but he was shocked to discover something unique about Lagos.
“I didn’t know that Lagos State is the centre of crack and cocaine,” he stated in bewilderment.
Emma, who was posted to Area F in Ikeja, opposite police college area command, stopped using heroine for a short period, but on one sunny afternoon in his third month at the station, he was sent on an operation with some of his colleagues, and the unthinkable happened.
During the operation, he said they seized a consignment of cocaine and instead of declaring it at the station to his superiors, he hid it and started using it.
“I became worse after taking it but then I was still working until I got myself into trouble in Lagos Sate.
“I was the orderly to one Supol, who was the OC in charge of works, at force headquarters, Obalende, Lagos.”
“I was locked up for days at Alagbon police station before one of my uncles intervened and I was freed and transferred back to Kaduna State.”
Life back to zero in Kaduna
After his ordeal in Lagos, Emma gladly arrived in Kaduna, his old base, and quickly reunited with his old friends.
He continued his drug abuse and was transferred to Kafanchan LGA.
In Kafanchan, Emma could not get drugs to buy. This means regular commute to kaduna to get the substance.
Fired from the police
His use of illicit drugs got to the attention of the Force and Emma said he was sacked.
On leaving the police, he reunited with his old friends and continued his journey with drug abuse.
He eventually got involved with activities that are on opposite side of the law, which included picking pockets.
According to him, whenever he was arrested, his former colleagues in the police, always found a way to free him and he became a police informant.
He would later move to Keffi where he said a became a junkie.
“I came back to Keffi and became a junkie and no more a user, a crack (cocaine) user. Anything I hustled for through stealing was just to smoke crack,” he said.
“There is a difference between a junkie and a user because the users are those who claim they have money. They come, buy, smoke and go, but me, I couldn’t control it; I stole to smoke. I could’t control it, but with the help of experts, I am free now,” he explained.
Bereavement
As a result of Emma’s lifestyle and the troubles that came with it, his mother was frustrated to the point of death. Shortly after her burial, the father died too.
“I was in Black Street – an infamous area in Kaduna – smoking when my mother died; we went for the burial and when we came back, my father too died. I lost my father in the process of this journey of taking drugs,” a sober Emma said.
His parents death made his other siblings to cut him off.
Road to transformation
On one particular afternoon, while searching for drugs as usual, Emma met a woman named Gloria who promised to help him after he begged her for help.
After speaking with Gloria, he resolved to stop, but his resolution lasted for only two weeks.
“I was good for that two weeks until I returned to the streets and it became worse,” Emma said, but Gloria kept encoruaging him to stop, “she kept telling me that I should stop taking drugs.”
One day she informed him that someone who could help him would be visiting Kaduna for a programme.
A life-changing encounter
The person in question was Saadatu Adamu, a mental health counsellor and founder of Secure-D-Future International Initiative (SDF).
“Before I met Saadatu, I was a living dead. If you saw me, you would know that I was not just a user, I was a junkie. I could stay for a year and six months without bathing.”
“She asked if I was determined, and she said she would help to rehabilitate me.”
After the encounter with Adamu, Emma was taken to the Redeemed Christian God Church of God (RCCG) Drug Abuse Ministry (CADAM) for rehabilitation for one year.
According to him, he became good and returned to Kaduna but after staying without a job for two months, he returned to the dreaded Black street in Kaduna.
While on Black Street, he met a drug baron who advised him to start selling drugs, a request he gladly accepted until he met an encounter with a customer reintroduced him to taking drugs.
“I met a girl, [where] I went to deliver drugs to her in a hotel. She was a big girl. She said I should smoke crack worth N20,000 that she would pay, but I refused.
“Rather, I asked her to give me the money which she did but said if I won’t smoke the crack, I should give her back her money.
After his encounter with the lady in the hotel, Emma went back to living on the street and under the bridge in Kaduna before Adamu came to pick him up for rehabilitation, this was his second time rehabilitation journey.
They took him to a medical doctor in Abuja. He stayed there for a week then ran away. By this time Emma said all his legs were swollen from regular police and soldiers beating because he was always involved in petty theft to fund his drug use, again Adamu reached out and took him in for rehabilitation.
From the streets to a CSO
After his rehabilitation, instead of letting him go, Adamu decided to give Emma a job and made him the Chief Security Officer at her facility.
“When it was time to leave, she kept me to work here. That was how I started working here,” he said.
As of the time of the interview Emma was almost a year on the job.
He was able to reunite with his siblings through effort by the SDF.
“I am having a very good time with my family more than before.”
Speaking about his wife he said “She is a good woman. But I don’t blame her for leaving me.”
At the peak of his drug use, his wife left him and took the two children with her.
Advice
For people still battling with drug abuse, Emma said first need to have the belief that they can be free.
“When I see some of my mates now, I hide. My mates in the Police are now ASP but look at me.
“Challenges will come; temptations will always come, but you have to stand strong. You can be free!
Adamu, a mental health counsellor and founder of SDF, said she met Emma for the first time at a Christmas outreach in Kaduna.
According to her, there were over 80 people there, but she spotted Emma with his girlfriend.
“They came to us and were talking about help, but of course, I left.”
“One year later, I still got a message from that person that he needed help to get off the streets. That was how he came into our space,” she said.
“Two weeks later, he came back to SDF. We had an agreement before he came because they had told me his condition and how he was looking. So I told him he had to abandon the intake of drugs so he could get healed”.
After his rehabilitation, as he had no place to go, Adamu said they opted to give him a job to ensure stability.
“So I said okay, why don’t we reintegrate this person back into the system because we know, if we do that, it will help. We also knew he needed a life. That was how we reintegrated him back into the system, and he is working now and doing extremely well,” the SDF boss stated.
A reporter with the ICIR
A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance