New police commissioner takes over at eastern ports, braces up for challenges

A new commissioner of police has taken over in Port Harcourt to oversee eastern ports. She is Tamunoemi Evelyn Peterside, who continues where Kogi State-born Yunusa Ogwuche stopped.

Since Ogwuche stepped aside on May 23, 2020, after 35 solid years in the police, leaving behind applause and glorification by the eastern ports community, speculations have been rife on who would be favoured to step into his big shoes.

The answer came in the latest postings that picked on Peterside, who once served in the eastern ports before proceeding elsewhere.

Peterside has her tasks cut out for her. The first may be to find the charisma to carry the officers and men along without rancour. The port security community testified that Ogwuche excelled in this. One officer described him as the commissioner that does not shout. Some said they did not know officers can be made to deliver all the time without shouting.

The next may be inter-agency cooperation in the eastern ports, something that went very high under her predecessor. The open rivalry between the port police and the Customs and others rather changed for good as each agency found time to visit the other and learnt to resolve whatever differences amicably. On this, the Customs Comptroller in the zone, Awwal Baba Mohammed said: “We seek cordial work relationship with the police, all to support the economy.”

The third could be the need to maintain adequate security in the zone in the face of rising threats from youths, community rebels and infiltrating persons as the eastern ports begin to boom again. The BUA section of the Port Harcourt Port was shut down in 2019 because of insecurity. The matter led to crisis with the Nigeria Ports Authority which recently resolved the situation. The NPA headquarters said on the day Ogwuche was retiring that his tenure handled the situation effectively.

The new CP Eastern Ports seems equal to the bill as she said she was there to take the command to the next level. While taking over in a brief ceremony, Peterside promised to improve on the existing cordial relationship between her predecessor and the stakeholders so as to achieve sustainable development through Community Policing as directed by the Inspector General of Police. Abubakar Adamu.

She commended the retiring CP for maintaining peaceful relationship with relevant stakeholders in the Eastern Ports Command.

Earlier, Ogwuche advised the new not to ignore the community members and others who may have something to contribute in the overall peaceful coexistence in the Eastern Ports Command.

Like a home coming, the new CP once serve in the Eastern Ports Command as an Area Commander (ACP) some years back. She joined the Nigerian Police Force as a cadet Assistant Superintend of Police (ASP) in 1988.

She is expected to bring her pedigree to bear on her new task as she had attended various national and international courses. A 1984 English Literature graduate of Ahmadu Bellow University (ABU) with Masters in Education Management from the Rivers State University, the new CP expected to draw a programme that would sustain the gains of the recent past and reach new goals.

She is the 11th Commissioner of Police in the Eastern Ports Command and the first female CP to head the Command since the establishment of the Eastern Ports Command in 2009. Before her redeployment to the Eastern Ports Command, she was the Commissioner of Police, Community Policing, at the Force headquarters in Abuja. She is happily married with children.