By Olajide Idowu
Some police officers under the Osun State Command on Wednesday said they were yet to be paid their duty allowance for the coverage of the Osun July 16, governorship election, 38 days after the election.
The officers who spoke, anonymously, to newsmen in Osogbo, stated that about 140 officers from the State Investigation Bureau (SIB), 30 from Explosive Ordinance Disposal ( EOD ), and about 160 Mobile police officers of MOPOL 39 had not been paid.
One of the officers said, all other police offices, deployed for the election coverage had received their allowances, including those deployed from outside the state.
He said they made efforts to find out the reason for the non-payment and they have not gotten any concrete feed back from the Force Headquarters.
He said it would be against the code of service to protest in demand for the allowance but appealed to the Inspector General of Police to look into their case.
Another officer said those mainly not paid were officers attached to the Osun Police Command but administratively handled by the force headquarters in Abuja.
He said all the officers on General Operation in the state (wearing uniform) that covered the election had been given their allowances , saying reason for their non-payment was not clear to them.
When contacted about the issue, the Osun Police Spokesperson, SP Yemisi Opalola, said she was not aware of officers not paid for the election coverage.
She, however, said any officer that had issue of non-payment of allowance could take it up with the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some police officers, not paid election coverage allowance, similarly protested in July in Osogbo .
The Force PRO, Muyiwa Adejobi, in a statement then, said the delay was caused by their banks.
Adejobi said contrary to the claims of the officers who spoke to newsmen, some of those who were deployed for the Osun election started receiving their entitlements before the election began.
He said the payment was disbursed directly into individual officers’ accounts from the Police Accounts and Budget (PAB) Office and not through any State Police Command (NAN)
