Mrs. Laureta Atinuke Koyi is a woman of uncommon values. She served in the Police force for 35 years, rose to the position of a commissioner and still maintained a home. She is married and has wonderful children. In this interview with Church Times, she bares her mind on her time in the police and other issues.

How I joined the police
I joined the Police in 1973 at the age of 19. I wanted to read law but along the line, when I was writing my school cert, a senior police officer came to tell us about the prospect of joining the police. That was how I changed my mind. The interesting thing was that there was nobody in the whole of my family that was a police officer. From the beginning, I aimed high. But how fast my promotion would be, I didn't know.
There were few police officers that were women and they were dreaded. And I had some uncles who used to tell me I would be a police officer because of my height. The man who came to lecture us painted a very good picture of the police that I could not resist the temptation of becoming one. I was also attracted by the fact that women officers commanded respect and I wanted to be part of such group. And I also wanted something that would project me. I grew up among boys. My brothers and cousins were boys. That also influenced my career choice.
Expectations
They were not met immediately because I was told we were going to be taken as cadet officer. When I got there I met them doing recruitment. And I later realized that I was being employed as a recruit and all those that we took the exams together were primary school leavers and S75. I felt terrible and I wanted to leave. But it was too late. I was told I could not leave like that since I had already joined the force. By the time the school cert result came out, nothing was done as they were insisting on our certificates. Somebody however consoled me that I should not worry. I was later promoted to the rank of a Corporal and later a Cadet Officer, a position I thought I should have started with.
My parents
I did not have problems with them. They were supportive and my uncles were also supportive. By the time I joined the force, women in the profession were respected. I was posted to one mama Toyin immediately we passed out of the police college. She was a very forthright person who didn't take NO for an answer. She was the one who molded me during my formative stage on the job. She never took bribe and woe unto that officer working with her that took just a bottle of coke from civilians in the course of the job. We also had good home training which helped us to live a life that was forthright.
In the early days, the police force was not like this and this also applies to all other professions. I was interested in the job. I was happy and found the job exciting. I did not work for more than three years with mama Toyin but those years were memorable ones.
Gender to me is irrelevant
I have never allowed anybody to take advantage of me as a woman. During my days in the police I just had boldness and confidence that it became really impossible for people to take me for granted. The first impression that I made people to have about me was that I'm a human being who has a brain and not just a woman. I did not give room for my bosses to say I could not do certain things because I'm a woman.
God in my life
You can't put anything beyond God. There are times you plan and at the end of the day God gives you something better. My parents did not introduce us to using charms and all kinds of fetish things. But there was a particular officer who was in the force and was never promoted. Each time he was to be promoted something would just happen he would not be promoted. He was involved in an operation with me and I had to recommend him for promotion. I had to tell my boss about his case and he was eventually promoted. But I did not tell him I was doing anything for him. I didn't know how he got to know that I had been involved in helping him. So he came to me and said he was going to introduce me to one baba that would be helping me spiritually. I just turned him down because what occurred to me was that the baba that could not help him all this while, how could that baba now help me.
Another one came much later and told me that there was a baba that was interested in helping me. The baba came to see me and handed over some charms to me. I was really terrified because I had not been involved in such thing before. I became so afraid that I had to throw the thing away. The following day the man called me and said I did not use the charm he gave me. What was the charm? He gave me agbo and asked me to boil egg inside it and eat. It was later when I was watching one of these home videos that I realized that if I had eaten the egg I would have been initiated into a cult. That was how I escaped the second temptation of using charm. The Lord has since been my strength and protector.
Christian experience
I went to a secondary schooled where the mode of worship was Anglican. Right from there I had developed a kind of relationship with God. My parents were not fussy about my Christian faith though they were Muslims. When I was in school, I didn't know how to do anything except to pray. There was a day an elderly woman told me that I would be carried away by the Spirit of God one day because she noted my comitment to the things of God. I believe that God has always been there for me. I see God in everything I do. When you want to marry in the police they will investigate and make the man realize that he was marrying somebody who could be transferred. So I told God and said that if at all I would be transferred out of Lagos that my last born would have been 10. My last child was born in 1983 and I did not get transferred out of Lagos until 1995 and when I was transferred I was transferred to Ogun State. There was a time they were doing transfer and I was transferred to Force Headquarters which was in Lagos and two months after I had been transferred all the women were transferred out of Lagos. So I was insulated because I had already been transferred to Force Headquarters. I was later transferred back to Lagos State. Three months after I was transferred out of the place they did another mass transfer which affected many women.
Men love police women
In those days men wanted to associate with police women. And the police have a way of finding out the kind of people that are married to women in the force. There are certain things you cannot do as a female police officer. My husband was a basket ball player like myself. He used to play for NBC and I was playing for the Police. He was the one who had enough courage to come to me. We have never had cause to pack up the marriage. He gave me all the support when it comes to my job. I have tried as much as possible to combine my work with my family.

Marriage
Marriage is not something you go in and come out from. It is only death that should separate you from your spouse. There is no problem in marriage that cannot be solved. I have been married for 32 years. I'm yet to see somebody who had gone into marriage and come out of it who has not regretted it. If a woman makes up her mind that come rain or shine, she would stick to her husband, she would find out that whatever she is going through will be for a while. A woman need a large dose of patience to survive in a home to the point that even when the man throws your things out, you put them back and tell him that you re not going anywhere. Even when they don't have children, they should still stick together and hold unto the marriage. I don't believe in single parenting because the role of a man in the life of a child is different from the role of the woman.

Why police do better outside the country
They do wonders outside because they have schedule time for work and everything works there. There is no human being who has all the facilities that will not put in the best. In those days in Nigeria, the police used to give officers clothing items up to their under wears. But that is not there today. Abroad, you see a police officer properly kitted.