Police deployed to
cover the country’s April polls are complaining of non-payment of duty
allowance for the period so far, which has lasted nine days. Some of
the police that spoke to NEXT on condition of anonymity, disclosed that
the N500 per day for the rank and file, N750 for inspectors, and N1000
feeding allowance approved for the officers, is a far cry from the kind
of risk they are exposed to.
They also alleged
that the police never made provision for their accommodation, as they
were informed that the state command where they were deployed to for
the election exercise, was expected to cater for their accommodation.
This, however, was not the case. They claimed that most of the police
state commands across the country are facing accommodation problems, so
they resorted to sorting themselves out.
On national assignment
Reacting to the
allegation, the Police Force Public relations officer, Olusola Amore,
told NEXT that, “Whether money or no money, police men are being paid
salary. We consider it as a sacrifice to our fatherland; it’s not the
issue of money that matters to police, but the security of lives and
property for which we are being paid for on (a) monthly basis.”
However, he confirmed that an initial feeding allowance has been paid,
and added that “upon their return, they will surely pay them their
out-station allowance”.
In addition, the
police public relations officer said the Inspector General of Police is
aware of the importance of peaceful elections, and that was what
informed the redeployment of the state police commissioners across the
country ahead the elections.
He further
revealed that the Police are still maintaining the strategy used in
monitoring the botched elections. He said that their collaboration with
other security agencies is working.
Asked if he noticed any lapses, he said, “I cannot say there are
any lapses because the election was called off before mid-day; what we
observed was that the security agents were already at the polling units
even before the arrivals of INEC staff and their officials.” Speaking
on why the Police did not accompany INEC materials as noticed in some
polling units, Mr Amore replied “our own is: if INEC requested for
police. We will surely make police available; if they say they do not
want police to be at a particular place, police will stay away.”
