By MATTHEW DIKE
A police officer attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Lagos State Police Command has died while dancing at his younger brother’s wedding ceremony in the United States of America.
The deceased SARS officer identified as Inspector Friday Monye, was said to have travelled along with his mother and others to California, US, to witness his younger brother’s wedding.
According to one of the deceased officer’s colleagues, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, Inspector Monye was in very high spirit over the wedding before he left the shores of Nigeria.
Explaining further how the incident occurred, the inspector said that Monye was very busy dancing, exchanging pleasantries and smiling at guests and members of his family as well as his in- laws, when he suddenly slumped.
His colleague added that but before the deceased officer, who hailed from Delta State, could be rushed to a nearby hospital in California, he had given up the ghost.
He said that Monye was a hero and a gallant police officer, who never joked with his job. He said the officer would advise his colleagues to take their jobs very seriously, because his job was like his wife.
“He would always say, ‘Forget about women and do the job well. I believe in my job and always put in my best. Women would come, but do the job first. Without the job there is no woman for you,’” his colleague said.
The policeman said that the late inspector, before his departure for the US, was enthusiastically announcing his planned journey to America to everyone who cared to listen, especially his colleagues in the police.
“We all received the news of his death with shock. Inspector Friday Monye was a very good officer, who was loved by all his colleagues. He was friendly, jovial, kind and generous. He worked with the fear of God,” the officer further lamented.
The officer also revealed that the late inspector’s kinsmen had already told his younger brother, the groom, to ensure that the remains of the late SARS operative were buried in his hometown in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, his mother and other relations with whom he had traveled to the US for the wedding, have return home to await the repatriation of the remains of the deceased officer back to Nigeria for burial.
