Some policemen have cried out over the non-payment of their six months salaries.
In an interview with Daily Post, the constables, who were recruited into the Nigeria Police Force, last year, said they are yet to recieve their salaries since they passed out from the police colleges in April, this year.
While speaking with Daily Post, the constables said they have been going to work without pay since April.
Many of them who spoke in anonymity, said, they expected to be paid in October after going to the Force Headquarters in Abuja for IPPS documentation in September.
According to them, other police officers were paid on Monday, but they were ignored.
“We are hungry. We have been working since April without any salary. Our commanders won’t stop posting us out for duties, despite the fact that we are not paid.
“Many of us till depend on our parents and relatives to feed ourselves. It’s been very tough. Many of us have borrowed money from people while also owing food vendors around our areas. Most times we wait by the roadside to get free ride, when we don’t have money for transport fare. This is not how officers of the law should be treated.
“Don’t forget that one of us was killed by armed robbers in Kogi on June 4. That’s the risk in this job, yet our welfare is not important to the authorities. How can anybody work for six months without being paid?
“If this had happened in the civil service, you would have seen them on the street with placards. But, we are voiceless. We dare not talk about it outside. We should be suffering and smiling. It doesn’t happen like that in other agencies.”
They appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to come to their aid, as they would not want to keep depending on others for their livelihood.
Another senior police officer, whose name was not given, noted that new constables are being subjected to all forms of financial embarrassment as a result of the non-payment of their wages.
He added that, he was in support of the calls by the End SARS protesters to reform the Nigeria Police Force, while expreasing regrets that the protest was hijacked by hoodlums, saying the fight was also for the freedom of the ranks and files in the force.
“These young cops were not paid since six months ago. Is that normal? We’re suffering in this job, but we can’t speak up. Look at our barracks and compare that to what obtains elsewhere. That’s why I’m so pained that the End SARS protest was hijacked by hoodlums.
“Those guys were also fighting for our freedom too, especially the ranks and files. The reform they are calling for will address all these anomalies in the force,” the Police Inspector said anonymously.
