By Baron Ike
Protesting policemen in Borno State on Monday
Police officers in Borno State are protesting in Maiduguri, the state capital, setting burn fires and shooting guns and teargas randomly.
But their authorities have said they are not their personnel.
They are said to be protesting the non payment of their allowances of nearly eight months.
Sources said Mobile Police officers on special duty in Borno State protested in Maiduguri, the state capital on Monday.
The officers, deployed from across the country to help fight insurgency in the state, took over some streets on Monday morning, in protest of the non-payment of their allowances.
Eyewitnesses said the embittered officers barricaded a major highway in the city, shoting sporadically into the air, burning tyres, and spraying teargas, and causing commotion in the area.
In the process, vehicular movements in the area was disrupted as most commuters avoided the highway.
The aggrieved officers have reportedly not been paid any of their allowances since they were deployed to Borno in January, said the protesting cops.
They were seen armed and matching towards the command headquarters to report their grievances.
Some of them who spoke to reporters complained of the “inhuman” treatment they have been subjected to since their deployment.
Borno State Commissioner of Police, Damian Chukwu, was reported to have called for calm, blaming the non-payment of the allowances on late passage of the Federal budget by the National Assembly.
It was learnt that the authorities had moved in to arrest the organisers of the protest but it is feared the protesting policemen and women mainly the rank and file are out to take their destiny in their hands.
Police authorities in Abuja are suŕprised at the protest and are reading meaning into it.
Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris was said to have asked the deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of operations and the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of the zone to deal with the matter.
Meanwhile, the Police authorities have denied the media report claiming that there was a protest by Police personnel over non-payment of their special duty allowance, on Monday, July 2.
In a statement signed by Jimoh Moshood, acting deputy commissioner of police and police public relations officer, the force categorically stated that “no police personnel protested in Maiduguri today, 2nd July, 2018.”
Police statement denying the protest read in part: “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.
“The inspector general of Police, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris, NPM, mni 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, and also assure them that since the budget has been approved, the allowances will be expeditiously processed and paid without any further delay. They subsequently returned to their duty posts.
“Consequently, the IGP has ordered the Commissioner of Police, Police Mobile Force, PMF, to proceed to Maiduguri, Borno State 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 to police personnel in the North East of the country.”
Moshood added that the PMF personnel that went on the inquiry were not those attached to Operation Lafiya Dole in the fight against insurgency in the North-East but those on of visiting units deployed in Maiduguri on crime prevention and other Police duties in the state.
He therefore enjoined members of the public in Maiduguri, Borno State not to panic “but to go about their lawful duties and other responsibilities without fear or apprehension.”
He assured that the matter would not degenerate into disturbance of public peace anywhere in the country.