Some police officers who covered the Osun State governorship election have accused the authorities of withholding their allowances.
The police officers said they catered for their needs by themselves while they were on duty during the election because the “authorities” promised to reimburse them immediately after the election.
One of the officers, who spoke with journalists on behalf of the others, accused unnamed senior officers of the force of withholding their entitlements for the election.
“Most of us are already protesting this cheating within ourselves,” said the officer who declined to say his name to avoid victimisation.
“We ought to have been paid our allowances the moment we were deployed to secure the governorship election in Osun State but those who were supposed to pay us said we should wait till Sunday when the election would have ended.
“It’s about five days after the election was held, about 40 per cent of the Osun Police Command workforce have not received their allowances. We feel that it’s an act of injustice for some of our superior officers to have received their allowances while they are hoarding our own.
“We need this money because we worked for it under stressful circumstances. It will demoralise us to see that after working for the peaceful conduct of the election, some people feel they can enjoy our sweat,” the officer said.
The aggrieved police officers called on the Federal Government to probe the refusal of the police authorities to pay their entitlements for the election coverage.
“We, the aggrieved police officers, want President Buhari to probe the non-payment of election allowances in the July 16 Osun gubernatorial election.”
Reacting, the Commissioner of Police in Osun State, Olawale Olokode, said he is not aware the officers’ entitlements were being withheld.
He said top officers who led the election security team may be able to react to the issue because he did not participate in the excercise.
Muyiwa Adejobi, the Force PRO, said in a statement that the delay in payment of the officer’s entitlements was caused by their banks.
Mr Adejobi said contrary to the claims of the officer who spoke to journalists, some of those who were deployed for the Osun election started receiving their entitlements before the election began.
“With regards to the payment of allowances of Police Officers who participated in the Osun State Gubernatorial Election duty, it is pertinent to emphasize that officers scheduled for the duty had their account details forwarded to the Police Accounts and Budget (PAB) office at the Force Headquarters where payments were prepared and disbursed accordingly,” the statement read.
“The said payment of allowances to cover the election duty was disbursed directly into individual accounts from the PAB Office and not through any State Police Command. As such, individuals started receiving payment alerts even before the commencement of the election.”
The police spokesperson said all the complaints with regards to the officers’ entitlements had been addressed internally and every officer captured for the election duty has been paid.
“This situation is noveau as it has not been experienced in the previous Anambra and Ekiti gubernatorial elections.
“It is fully the banks’ fault and not that of the Force. Officers affected were communicated via SMS and internal memo as to the situation. Continuous complaint on this particular delay in payments which has been addressed amounts to impatience and indiscipline on the part of the affected officers.
“The reports and the news on non-payment of election allowances as widely publicised is misleading and unfounded, and should be disregarded.”