A former inspector general of the Nigerian Police Force, Tafa Balogun is dead. Report said he died of heart related diseases in Reddington Hospital, Lagos today Thursday August 4, 2022. He was said to have been down for a while before passing on this night. He died exactly three weeks to his 75th birthday.
He was born on 25 August 1947 in Ila Orangun, Osun State
Mustafa Adebayo Balogun was appointed Inspector General of the Nigerian Police in March 2002 and was forced to retire because of widespread charges of corruption in January 2005Balogun, who was eased out of office by the then president Olusegun Obasanjo over corruption allegations,
On April 4, 2005, Tafa Balogun was arraigned at the Federal High Court, Abuja for stealing and laundering of over $100 million in his three years as Inspector General of Police from the Police treasury. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) under Nuhu Ribadu brought 70 charges against him, covering the period from 2002 to 2004 when he was the Inspector General of Police. He made a plea bargain with the court in exchange for returning much of the property and money. He was sentenced to six months in jail.His trial was full of drama. One of such was when he collapsed on his seat on June 29, 2005, at the Abuja High Court. The former police boss, who pleaded guilty to eight of the 56 count-charges directly affecting him, was convicted and sentenced to six months in each of the charges, which is however to run concurrently. He was released on February 9, 2006 after serving his sentence, part of it at Abuja’s National Hospital.
Despite the travail, Balogun returned an illustrious son of among his kinsmen and he was highly celebrated as a philanthropist.
-additional reports from First Weekly Magazine.
