Elections: Policemen fume over nonpayment of allowances, allege diversion

The elections may have come and gone, but over 400 policemen are presently fuming over nonpayment of their elections allowances.

According to some of them, the allowances range between N15000, N20, 000 and N25, 000 per head, depending on the officer’s rank. Senior officers were given N25, 000, Inspectors N20, 000 and rank and file N15, 000.

The most galling part of the issue was that they heard that the money was paid before the commencement of both the presidential and governorship elections.

Most of the policemen affected are those attached to the

Special Fraud Units (SFU), Milverton, Ikoyi, Lagos, Force Annex Headquarters, Kamselem Obalende, Force CID, Alagbon close, Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), Adeniji Adele, Lagos Island, amongst others.

According to them, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Mr. Solomon Erase, in Charge of the Department of Criminal Investigation, is in charge of most of these affected officers. They insisted he should be able to explain to them what happened, but he had not done so.  They wanted him to take up the matter for them.

A policeman said that like most DIG, Erase was posted out for the election, thus they knew he was not the person who tampered with their money.

One of them said: “Other policemen and women had been paid their allowances. We don’t know why they’ve refused to ours! Every policeman attached to local government, police divisions, Lagos and Ogun Commands have all being paid! In fact, policemen in Zone II, Onikan have also being paid! Who is with our money?”

The policemen are not just angry, they are also alleging fraud. They insisted that a higher top ranking officer might have diverted their money.

“We were posted out for election duties just like other policemen. We took risks and worked like our colleagues. When our colleagues were paid, we expected that we should be paid also. What’s going on? Nobody is talking or explaining to us why our money had not been paid.”

Another angry officer said that at Alagbon, he gathered that only a section had been paid; that’s the Central Criminal Registry (CCR).

He added: “If someone takes our money home to spend, it would be too bad! They didn’t pay us for the first and second election, yet other policemen have been paid those money. When they didn’t pay us for the first election, we kept faith, thinking they would pay us both allowances together, after the second election. But they didn’t! What did we do wrong?”

Meanwhile, policemen in Lagos State Police Command insisted that it was only N15000 that was paid to them, adding they didn’t receive any dime from the second election. They also said that they were paid only allowances for the first election, but had not been paid for the second one. One of them said: “They said we should drop our names and account numbers. We had already done that. They said they would credit our accounts.”

A senior policeman explained every policeman in Lagos was paid once and that the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Aderanti Kayode had already told them that the first election allowance, covered for both first and second election.

He added: “The Commissioner of Police said that no policeman should expect another allowance. In fact, the money should have been broken in two; to be paid for the first and second election differently, but the CP said everything should be paid at once. Anybody expecting any other payment is wasting his or her time. The money was paid even before the first elections.”