Tuesday, March 11, 2025 - The
Commissioner of Police in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Tunji Disu, has
revealed how a retired soldier once asked the police to k!ll his own son who
was arrested for cultism.
Disu made the disclosure in
a post on his official X account on Monday, March 10.
In the post titled, "The First
Lawmakers: My Reflection on Home, Discipline, and Duty," Disu emphasised
that law and order must begin at home.
“A retired soldier once came into my office
in Ago Iwoye, demanding we kill his son, a university student arrested for
cultism. His rage was volcanic. Yet, the very next day, that same man returned,
food in hand, asking after his son’s well-being. When I joked, ‘So you don’t
want us to kill him again?’ his eyes betrayed a truth every parent knows: anger
is often the flipside of helpless love,” he wrote.
Disu said he met the soldier’s son years
later in Shagamu, Ogun State, when he had completed his education and gotten
married.
The police boss also described how parents
often come to police stations seeking help to discipline their children,
sometimes asking officers to torture or detain them.
“As a police officer, I’ve witnessed this
truth play out in heartbreaking ways—parents arrive at stations, not with pleas
for justice, but with demands for us to parent for them. ‘I want you to detain
my child; I want you to discipline him.’ ‘Torture him,’ as though pain alone
could rewrite a life long gone astray.”
He shared another experience of a father
who asked the police to keep his drug-addicted son in custody for weeks.
“Keep him here,” he insisted. We refused—not out of indifference, but because
cells are not rehabilitation centres. If anything were to happen to the boy, or
if he escaped, who would the father blame? The police. Yet discipline cannot be
outsourced. It must be nurtured, patiently and persistently, at home.”
He noted that while earlier generations
experienced discipline through corporal punishment, what is lacking today is
not discipline but parental presence.
“The problem today isn’t a lack of
discipline; it’s a lack of presence. Parents once corrected their children
directly, even if harshly. Some have handed that duty to strangers—teachers,
police, and social workers. But no institution can replace a parent’s
guidance.”
He warned that the role of the police is
not to raise children or instil values.
“To be clear: I am not discouraging parents
from reporting wayward children. If your son steals or your daughter vanishes,
come to us. We will help. But do not confuse reporting with surrendering. When
you hand us your child and say, ‘Fix them,’ you misunderstand our role. We
enforce laws; we cannot replace love. We investigate crimes; we cannot teach
values.”
Disu said the retired soldier’s son changed not because
he was jailed, but because his father eventually chose to support him instead
of abandoning him.
He called on parents to take responsibility
for raising their children properly, stressing that police cells cannot replace
homes.
He further urged parents to be more present
in their children’s lives and not hand over their parental duties to
others.
“The police cannot replace your voice. We
cannot instil the values you withhold. Our cells are not classrooms; handcuffs
are not teaching tools. When you outsource parenting to the state, you gamble
with life—and with the peace of communities.”
“My generation’s parents were far from perfect, but they owned their role as first teachers. They scolded, they punished, and they stayed. I urge present parents to do the same—not with the harshness of the past, but with the wisdom of your own heart. Meet your children where they are. Listen. Correct and love.”
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