Policemen call on Buhari to pay them owed allowances for overtime put in during elections

SOME policemen who worked overtime during Nigeria's last general elections are yet to be paid the allowances and bonuses promised to them so have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to come to their assistance.

In February and March, Nigeria held presidential, National assembly, governorship and state houses of assembly elections across all 36 states of the federation. During the exercise, policemen were charged with maintaining security, manning polling booths, accompanying ballot boxes and ensuring the safety of election materials.

However, policemen attached to the Pedro Police Station in the Somolu area of Lagos State, have complained about the non-payment of their allowances. These allowances have been paid to policemen in other formations and divisions but those serving in Pedro have not and they say nobody has explained why to them.

One of the affected policemen said: “There are 11 divisions under Area H Command and only Pedro division has not been paid. The allowances for election duties were supposed to be paid once into our accounts but in our division, from the district police officer, to the last constable, nobody has received a dime.

“The officers among us are entitled to N85,000, while the rank and file are entitled to N35,000 and we are more than 100 in number. We have done all they asked us to do and everybody is already fed up as in the whole of Lagos State, we are the only division that has not been paid.

"In other states, it may just be a few names being skipped in a division. The president claims to be fighting corruption, yet we are being denied our legitimate earnings. We have been quiet about it for fear of being intimidated but the total amount that is to be remitted to our division is about N8m."

However, Bala Elkana, a spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command, said the non-payment of the allowances was caused by a glitch in the system. He added that the policemen would be paid as soon as the issue was resolved.

He said: “I don’t think the issue is peculiar to Pedro Police Station alone. Majority have got their payment, only a few officers have not received theirs.

"We have taken the complaint to Abuja because the payment was controlled centrally. The officer in charge of salaries is in Abuja at the moment with the complaint and the feedback I got from him was that there was a failure of the payment platform, so the money hanged.

"They are reconciling with the Central Bank of Nigeria and once that is done, they will get their payment. This is not a mistake from anybody or a deliberate action, it is a system failure, so the money has not gone to anybody.”