Rev Fr Paul Omotosho, an Assistant Superintendent of Police
and Chaplain (Catholic) for the Lagos State Police Command spoke with EMMANUEL UDOM on the specific functions of police chaplains, his challenging and exciting moments since he resumed as police priest and what to expect in the up-coming chaplaincy retreat in Lagos
What has been your experience since you became the Chaplain
of the Lagos state police command?
It has been quite challenging and at the same time
exciting. I was posted to zone 2 police command as the Chaplain (Catholic) in charge
of Lagos and Ogun state. I am a police priest with dual functions of being trained police as well a chaplain who is like a spiritual director to police officers in the command
As Jesus Christ said, the harvest is plentiful but the
laborers are few, but the Lord of harvest will bring laborers for the harvest the work is enormous and we are very few.
Police chaplaincy must be built in every police barracks in
the state. The chaplaincy has three sections- Catholic, Protestant and Imamcy
All of these are run, coordinated and guided by the police
chaplaincy, just like in other security agencies. The bottom-line is that the present of chaplaincy
goes a long way in guiding against the excesses of some
police officers, and offer religious or spiritual needs to these officers
We also work closely with the Human Rights section of the
police and deal with religious signals refereed to us by the commissioner of police as well as visit
by religious leaders to the commissioner of police
Rev Fr Paul Omotosho, Catholic Chaplain, Lagos state police command
You are in charge of the Catholic arm. Who takes
responsibility for other arms?
There are other churches and mosques at the police command
and barracks manned by competent police officers that cater for the spiritual needs of the officers. But, we have a dream of ensuring that in each police there is a catholic church, a protestant and a mosque
I am the chaplain, the master servant for the Lord here at
the command. As a Catholic priest, I am in charge of St Anthony Catholic
Church here at Highway Patrol Quarters in Ikeja. .The church was built by St Leo Catholic church, but when I came here we had to construct the grotto, modern toilet and also sunk a borehole for both the parishioners and residents of the
From here, I handle the mass everyday. You see, a priest
must be thoroughly trained for between 10 to 16 years both in Nigeria and Rome, before being allowed by the Catholic Church to conduct mass
I also conduct mass at Obalende, ikeja, Ketu police barracks in addition to conducting mass in Eleweran police command headquarters in Ogun state
Apart from the mass, what else is the chaplaincy involved
in?
In addition to the mass and series of meetings and
counseling, we here at the chaplaincy do visit suspected criminals in their various cells to counsel, pray and talk to them on the need to confess and forsake their sinful ways them. We
do visit motherless baby’s homes and orphanages with
spiritual and material gifts for the inmates. These gifts are donated by some godly police officers for the less privileged members of the society
In the next couple of days, we will be having a retreat for
all police chaplains as well as chaplains from our sister security agencies at Police College in Lagos
what is the retreat all about?
The retreat is an annual event for all chaplains across
Nigeria to come together, pray and rub minds on the peculiar challenges they are faced with and
proffer ho solutions on how to tackle with these
challenges. December last year, we had a similar event where chaplains from security agencies across the country
and senior armed forces top shots attended.
At the end of this retreat, we will meet with the Cardinal,
who is the head of the chaplaincy, where we will receive further
encouragements and prayers for the national duties we are involved in