CN Femi’s Final Salute: A Chapter Ends, A Legend Begins
By Mahmud Isa Yola
There are exits… and then there are departures that make you pause, sigh, and say, “A whole chapter just closed.” Today in Yola, we witnessed one of those rare departures. Not the kind with noise and ceremony alone, but the kind that leaves a quiet ache, like the silence after a great symphony. CN Femi Agboalu Samson, NDLEA’s Commander in Adamawa retired and signed out with legacy. The kind you don’t write in memos, but in memory.
As a proud son of Adamawa myself, and this one hits home; It’s personal—not just because of where I’m from, but because I’ve had the privilege of working closely with Commander Femi Agboulu over the years. I’ve seen the fire behind his calm, the precision in his leadership, and the compassion beneath the steel. He didn’t just serve Adamawa—he belonged to it in the way he carried our burdens, protected our streets, and planted hope in the places many had abandoned.
Femi Agboalu wasn’t your everyday commander. He was the kind of officer who could make silence feel like instruction. Calm, calculating, always ten steps ahead — and yet, his warmth made the most junior officer feel seen. Leadership for him was a calling. And he answered it with both spine and soul.
When he took the reins in Adamawa in November 2021, things didn’t magically transform overnight — but the tone changed immediately. The air around that Command got clearer, the structure tighter, the resolve firmer. Then the results began to roll in: 1,565 suspects arrested. Over 10,000 kilograms of drugs seized. Multi-million-naira forfeitures. Creative concealments intercepted — from concrete mixers to SUVs with fake presidential plates — cracked open like peanuts.
But numbers alone don’t capture his legacy. You measure men like Femi in the lives they changed, the dignity they restored, and the enemies of society they made deeply uncomfortable.
He believed in prevention just as much as enforcement. Under his command, the Drug Integrity Test was introduced and operationalized. Community outreach became more than an annual checkbox. DAPE became a rhythm. And for the first time, all 21 LGAs in Adamawa had functioning Drug Intelligence Officers. That’s not just work — that’s groundwork.
And there’s something else — something you can’t list in official handover notes: Femi built people. He got auxiliary staff employed. He mentored officers quietly, without fanfare. He believed in giving credit, not hoarding it. And if you knew him well, you knew this — he didn’t need to be the loudest in the room to be the leader in it.
To serve under General Marwa is already a privilege. But Femi made it a personal mission to embody the Marwa doctrine — with clarity, courage, and grace.
To his team — who fought beside him, stayed late, traveled rough terrain, gave up holidays — this moment is yours too. Because when the commander leads from the front, the battle becomes a brotherhood.
I hope his successor understands the baton he is receiving. It carries weight. It carries momentum. And it carries a story of what is possible when a man brings heart to a hard job.
Commander Femi may have retired, but people like him don’t leave the fight. They simply take the uniform off and keep influencing from the sidelines. And if you know anything about him, you know he’s probably already thinking of the next way to serve — just not with a warrant card this time.
So here’s to a man who gave the system more than it gave him.
Who walked quietly but whose footsteps shook the ground.
Who led with resolve and left with respect.
Happy retirement, Sir.
Adamawa won’t forget you. Neither will we.
