Police Officers Threaten To Boycott Anambra Guber Election, See Reasons

Some police officers have threatened to boycott the forthcoming Anambra gubernatorial election slated for November 6th in the state.

Some of the police officers who spoke with News men on condition of anonymity, said they intend to boycott the election because they were yet to be paid for the 2020 gubernatorial election they monitored in Ondo State.

The angry police officers told DAILY POST that over 10,000 of them, mobilised for the election on Saturday, 10 October 2020 are yet to be paid despite several appeals to the police authority, the Presidency and concerned individuals.

DAILY POST had reported that about ten thousand policemen out of over twenty-eight thousand policemen from twenty-eight commands deployed to monitor the election in Ondo State in 2020 petitioned President Buhari and the Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Adamu over non-payment of their allowances.

Our correspondent recalls that the affected policemen had few days after the election, raised an alarm over the non-payment of the allowances.

The concerned policemen have, however, threatened that they will not participate in the monitoring of any election in the country until they get their allowance for the Ondo State gubernatorial election.

Some of those who spoke with DAILY POST maintained that if they were mobilised forcefully, they will not discharge their duties as expected.

One of the police officers who spoke with DAILY POST revealed that two officers while coming from Ondo state were among the victims of an explosion that occurred at Igbelajewa Village, along the Ilesha-Akure Expressway on Monday 12th October 2020.

He said, “The accident occurred at Igbelajewa Village, along the Ilesha-Akure Expressway. One of the officers, ASP Simiat died in the tanker explosion. The second person is still at the University College Hospital (UCH) responding to treatment.

Another Policeman disclosed that they will not be interested in monitoring future elections due to the non-payment of the Ondo election allowances.

“Good morning brother. With what transpired in the Ondo election, policemen will not be willing to go mostly those outside the concerned state.

“Police job is a zombie or regimental job you must obey the order but, they can’t force everyone to do the job right when morale is not there.

Another angry police officer said, “In summary, some of us will not go unless they force us to go. We may be forced to go because we have no other job at hand, the authority can even pick names from Abuja to go for the election duty anywhere you have no choice, it’s a national duty, it is a compulsory duty, its either you go or face the trial.”

But, all efforts made by DAILY POST to get a reaction from the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba proved abortive.

Calls put through his mobile phone were not successful while an SMS sent to Mr. Mba for his reaction has not been responded to as of the time of filing this report.