Police officers providing security along Abuja – Kaduna highway have protested the non-payment of their allowances, when those of officers from other security agencies have been paid.
Some of the police officers, told Daily Trust in confidence that they were yet to get their allowances six weeks after their deployment.
NAIJ.com recalls that following the closure of the Abuja airport for six weeks to enable the repairs of its runaway, all flights were diverted to Kaduna airport.
This prompted the inspector-general of police, Ibrahim Idris, to deploy 350 armed personnel to provide security along Kaduna- Abuja Highway.
However, the police officers deployed to the road have complained that less than 24 hours to the re-opening of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, their allowances had not been paid.
The officers also expressed fears that their allowances might not be paid if the Abuja airport was reopened and they were deployed back to their respective stations.
Some of the police sources said they were redeployed from Niger, Kaduna and Kogi states to provide security to passengers going to Kaduna airport.
According to them, they provide security cover to passengers using the railway from Idu station in Abuja up to Rigasa station in Kaduna.
They also escort passengers from Abuja airport to Kaduna airport as well as securing the entire highway from Abuja to Kaduna.
The officers said they are worried because other officers from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) and Mopol on the same duty have been paid and that only conventional police officers are not being paid yet.
“The situation is worrisome. We have left our various commands for this special duty only for the authorities to withhold our allowances,” a police officer said.
“This is heartless. It is the same police authorities that will be complaining if we resort to extorting tokens from road users,” another officer noted.
In response, the spokesperson of the force headquarters Mr Jimoh Moshood on Sunday, April 16, said the policemen will soon be paid.
“Let them (policemen) be patient with us. All of them will be paid like their counterparts from other agencies,” Moshood said.
He however, stopped short of explaining why the payments of the officers were delayed unlike their counterparts from NSCDC and Mopol.
In another news report, About 40 traditional rulers in Ife, Osun state, have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call the inspector-general of police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to order and release the Lawarikan of Apoje, Oba Ademola Adedewe Ademiluyi and others in police custody.
NAIJ.com reports that the monarchs, under the aegis of the New Dawn Ife Kingdom Obas, on Thursday, April 13, at Ile-Ife, bemoaned what they called the desecration of Yoruba custom and tradition, the Nation reports.
They described the detention and parade of Ademiluyi and other indigenes of Ife as illegal.