Unpaid Allowances sparks Police Protest In Maiduguri

Police officers in Borno State have taken to the streets of Maiduguri, the state capital today (Monday) in a protest.

The officers who are protesting over about five months of unpaid allowances barricaded major roads around the police headquarters.

According to them, they have not been provided with accommodation, among other basic needs.

Residents told Channels Television that the officers also fired some gunshots, causing commuters to scamper for safety.

Channels Television’s Borno correspondent also said all attempts by senior officers of the police command in Maiduguri to pacify the protesting personnel to sheath their swords proved abortive.

The Borno State Police Commissioner Damian Chukwu also reacted to the protest which lasted up to three hours.

“We woke up this morning to experience a protest at State HQ gate by visiting PMF men in Borno State over unpaid special duty allowances for five months running.

“We are making efforts to pacify them and to assure them of their payments of entitlements soonest,”  Chukwu said.

Meanwhile, the Force Public Relations Officers, Jimoh Moshood, has denied that there was any protest in Maiduguri over non-payment of special duty allowances, contrary to the statement by the Borno State Commissioner of Police.

“No police personnel protested in Maiduguri as a Result of Non-payment of Special Duty Allowance.

“Police Officers and men in the State are on their duty posts ensuring public peace and law and order in the state,” he said in a statement on Monday.

Rather, according to him, the officers only went to make enquiries concerning delays in the payment of their special duty allowance.

“Some of the Police Mobile Force personnel on special duty in Maiduguri went to the Borno State Police Command Headquarters on enquiry over the delay in the payment of their special duty allowance in the early hours of today and not on protest as reported in some media,” Moshood said.

Furthermore, he noted that the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim K. Idris, promptly directed the Commissioner of Police, Borno State to address and inform them why there is delay in the payment of their special duty allowance.

He also asked the Borno CP to assure them that since the 2018 budget has been approved, their allowances will be expeditiously processed and paid without any further delay.

Consequently, Moshood said that the IGP ordered the Commissioner of Police, Police Mobile Force (PMF) to proceed to Borno and other states in the North East where PMF personnel are deployed on special duty; to lecture and inform them on the efforts being made by the Force to ensure timely payment of special duty and other allowances.

CTV