More than two months after the Ondo State governorship election was conducted, 10,000 police officers deployed for the election have lamented the non – payment of their allowances.
The Nigeria Police Force had deployed over 30,000 personnel to provide security at the State governorship election which took place on October 10.
They, however, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu to urgently approve payment of the allowances.
The personnel drawn from about 24 states in two batches spent at least one week in the state for the election duty.
It was, however, gathered that shortly after the election, the personnel on the first batch were paid, but about 10,000 officers on the second batch are still expecting their allowance, with the fear that their monies must have been pocketed by the Police authority.
An Inspector who spoke on the condition of an anonymity said the development has dampened morale of the affected personnel.
According to him, a police officer is supposed to earn between N40, 000 to N120, 000 depending on the rank as allowance for the election duty.
For instance in Ogun State, the police officers said none of them, numbering 300, were yet to be paid.
Also, they added that, the police authority have been giving excuses that their accounts were incorrect whereas the same accounts are their salary accounts.
The source said “Usually, when we go on election duty, they don’t provide accommodation for us. They only carry us and dump us there. After one week, they we will give us the allowances due to each officer.
“But this time around, they paid those in first batch. But the second batch comprising about 10,000 officers have not been paid. They said there are issues with our account details, whereas it is through the same account that police officers receive their monthly salary, since then.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations (PPRO) of Ogun Police Command, Abimbola Oyeyemi declined comment, saying “I can’t respond to that question. I wasn’t the one who deployed them.”
The Force PRO, Frank Mba did not pick up several calls from our correspondent on Saturday while messages sent to him via text and whatsapp were also not responded to as of the time of this report.
