Shops in barracks: CP’s wife, police officers’ wives at war

Some wives of police, living at Megacity Barracks, Ikeja, Lagos State, have urged the wife of the Inspector-General of Police, to come and assist them in checking the excesses of Mrs. Boniface Onyeabor, wife of the Commissioner of Police, Mr Boniface Onyeabor, in charge of Ikeja Police College, Lagos State.

The women are against Mrs Onyeabor building shops in the barracks, arguing that it would affect their little businesses and areas where children used to play. Already, CP’s wife had brought sand and blocks into the barrack, in preparation to commence work.

One of them said: “We leant that the woman wants to build shops in the barracks without informing residents. We also learnt that some civilians had already made down payment for the yet to be built shops.” 

Another added: “The space where they are planning to build the shops, are where we stay to sell and generate money to assist our husbands. Most of us cook and sell foods.”

According to them, another reason they were against erection of shops in the barracks, was because most wives of CP, always make such shops unaffordable for residents of barracks.

One noted: “When she finished building the shops, it would be handed over to civilians, who had already paid money for the project. We will be left out. She is a mother to all the police wives as the commissioner’s wife, but since she came into power, nobody among the women had benefited. We heard that she had collected over N900, 000 to N1 million from those waiting for the proposed shopping complex.

“Our husbands cannot afford the outrageous price for the shops for us. She wants to collect our little contributions from us. That is why we must stop her before she starts building. We’re appealing to the Nigeria Police Authority to come to our aid.”

According to them, the CP’s wife had not spent up to six months as the mother of the barracks, and rather than equip the policemen wives with meaningful skills, preferred to embark on building shops to make money for herself.

“In fact, as we are speaking right now, she had already turned some part of the barracks to garage, where people park and pay a fee. The money goes into her personal pocket,” said one of the women.

She added: “We’re aware that each vehicle pays N300 a day and over 100 cars parked in the barracks space every day. If her plans succeed, our children wouldn’t have a place to play football or run around.”

Mrs Onyeabor was also accused of using thugs to harass the women, ordering them to vacate the spaces in the barracks they used for cooking and selling.

They said: “We have suffered! Imagine civilian thugs coming into the barracks to threaten and abuse us.  We have suffered in silent because we didn’t know how to go about it. We didn’t know who to tell about the situation we are facing. But now, we have come out to fight for our rights. We will do it without our husbands because they are still working in the command.”

The women appealed to the wife of the IGP, who is the President of POWA to come to their aid and check the Mrs Onyeabor’s activities. They also argued that they preferred the Force Headquarters to build shops in barracks and give them grace to make payments in installments.

  

Reacting to the women’s allegations, Mr Onyeabor said that the women had not officially reported issues that had to do with his wife to him.

He added: “It’s an act of indiscipline for the women to go to media without letting me know about the situation. The command is under my watch. My wife cannot erect any structure anywhere in the barracks without the approval of the national president of POWA. It is POWA’s president, who is the IGP’s wife that usually gives allocation documents for shops. The wives of rank and file policemen are not part and parcel of POWA. Officers’ wives used to make efforts to support them through various skill empowerments and other training. The women should support any project of POWA because it is from there the income used in supporting them comes from.”

According to the CP, if the law should be followed to the letter, then children above 18 years should not be allowed to live inside the barracks with their parents.

Mr Onyeabor said that such laws had been bent because of challenges of accommodation. He lamented that some of the retired officers were still occupying their flats in the barracks, which has made accommodation difficult for the current servicing police officers.