Usman Baba Alkali, the Nigeria Inspector-General of Police, has directed field commanders and strategic managers to compile a list of the policemen who are on election duty in Anambra but have not been paid.
This is a result of the complaints of some police personnel over the non-payment of their allowances for the Anambra gubernatorial election.
It was gathered that a policeman attached to polling unit 8, Abagana ward 2, Njikoka Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Anambra State lamented over lack of provision for food.
Over 30,000 police officers were deployed for the election which is held across 21 LGAs in the state.
In an interview at the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) situation room on Saturday, Force Spokesman, Frank Mba, quoted the IGP as attributing the non-payment to clerical mistakes in forwarding their details.
Mba said over 29,000 of the personnel drafted for the election have received their allowances.
“The IG has already given directive this afternoon that the field commanders and the strategic managers on the ground should compile the names of persons who have not gotten their allowances and get all the necessary details correctly”
“For the first time, we paid the money of personnel even before the commencement of the election.
“We deployed about 34,000 officers and as at noon on Friday, I did not check today. And I’m sure a lot more would have received their money today.
“But we understand that there are some who have not received their money. These could be as a result of clerical mistakes in forwarding their details, it could be typographical mistakes, it could be any other type of mistake in communication. Because the way these allowances are worked out is that the contributing commands are supposed to send these details from their respective squadrons if they are members of the police mobile forces or from their respective commands.
“Apart from that, it has to move from the office of the DPO to the CP’s office and then down to us.
“We are already working on that to find out why these few numbers have not received their money. But the reassuring message here is that we’ve got the money. There is no complaint about the availability of the funds. We’ve got these allowances and it is warehoused in the police account and not with the CBN.
“The issue of welfare is very dear to us and this time around, the money being paid to them is an improved version to what was being paid before. Before, they don’t get paid a feeding allowance. They just pay you your allowance and it is assumed that your allowance would take care of your feeding and accommodation. But this time around, a separate feeding allowance is actually worked out and added.
“These monies are being paid into their account and not over the table so nobody can pilfer with anybody’s money.,” Mba said.
