Police officers working on counter-insurgency operations in the Northeast have complained about not receiving their duties allowance for the past five months.
For the purpose of fighting Boko Haram and the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) fighters and bandits, Joint Security Forces made up of mobile police and the military were deployed to the region.
It was discovered that some of the affected officers claimed they were owed a number of allowances ever since their deployment to the Northeast.
The police officers claimed in a chat with SaharaReporters that the police authorities had abandoned them and that this had left them confused, dejected, destabilized, and less productive.
“For a good five months now, we, men of the Police Mobile Force here in the North-East states of Adamawa, Yobe Borno and others have not been paid our special allowances.
“However, our counterparts in the army are being paid monthly and it’s the same budget,” one of the aggrieved policemen told SaharaReporters.
The officer, who said attempts to complain have been met with threats by the police authorities, also called for a review of the allowances to reflect the current economic realities of the country.
Another officer, an inspector in rank, lamented acute hunger, saying they were not properly fed and their health had not been looked after.
He said: “We are not even given good food; we use our money to buy medicine from public medical vendors due to poor medication. Most of us now rely on bribe from motorists.
“Could it be that all of us who are policemen sent here for Boko Haram Operation were dumped here by the authorities? Our allowance for rank and file is N30,000 monthly and inspectors are expected to get N45,000; that is if the month is 30 days and if it’s 31 days, an additional N1000 for rank and file while inspectors will get an additional N1500.”
Ada Peter
