Officers protest unpaid salaries; police authorities react

Police officers in Kwara state have staged a protest over unpaid salaries, and the video of their protest is trending.

Some of the officers held twigs and leaves as a show of solidarity with the protest.

But the state commissioner of police,  in a statement released by its spokesperson, SP Okasanmi Ajayi, dissociated itself from the protesting officers.

According to the statement, the officers seen in the video are police special constabularies recruited to complement the operation of community policing.

”It is important to state that the concept of community policing and recruitment of special constabularies is voluntary in nature, meaning they are not on monthly remuneration like the conventional policemen.  This much the constabularies were briefed before taken up the job; besides, the job is not a full time job. 

Due to the complaints of the constabularies regarding non-payment of stipends by the state government, the constabularies were invited for a meeting by the state government on ways by which their complaints  could be looked into.

It was surprising that the same set of constabularies after the meeting with agents of the state government could go online with a video claiming that the government was owing them salaries for a year.”

 Okasanmi mentioned that the state Commissioner of Police, CP Tuesday Assayomo has stated categorically that the police is not owing any policeman or woman salary, neither is the police owing the special constabularies salaries.

 ”Therefore, members of the public are advised to disregard the viral video as it was designed to embarrass the police and also to draw undue sympathy from the public. 

The men and women of the special constabulary are at liberty to honorably disengage from the service if they so wish.” the statement concluded