Presidency Summons IG Idris Over Police Protest In Maiduguri

The Presidency on Monday summoned the Inspector General of the Nigeria Police, Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, to explain the circumstances leading to a protest march by mobile policemen posted to maintain the peace in Borno State. According to a source, the IG was seen at the Aso Villa heading to the office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Alhaji Abba Kyari, to honour the invitation.
However, the Police has clarified that its personnel seen blocking its Borno headquarters earlier on Monday in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, were not staging a protest, but were merely complaining over the delay in paying their special duty allowances.
The Force spokesman, Acting DCP, Jimoh Moshood, in a statement in Abuja said some of the Police Mobile Force personnel on Special duty only went to the command to enquire about the delay in the payment and not to protest.
Moshood said that the PMF personnel who went on enquiry were not those attached to Operation Lafiya Dole in the fight against insurgency in the North East.
He explained that they were those on the category of visiting PMF units deployed in Maiduguri on Crime Prevention and other Police duties in the State.
“The force wish to categorically state that it is not correct that police personnel protested in Maiduguri today July 2,” he said.
Moshood said that the Inspector-General of Police (I-G), Mr Ibrahim Idris, had directed the Commissioner of Police in Borno to address them why the delay in the payment of their special duty allowances.
He also assured them that with the approval of the budget, the allowances would be expeditiously processed and paid without any further delay.
The spokesman said that the IGP also ordered the Commissioner of PMF to proceed to Borno and other States in the North East where personnel are deployed on special duty.
He said that the commissioner should also inform them on efforts being made by the force to ensure timely payment of their allowances.
“Members of the Public in Maiduguri, Borno are hereby enjoined not to panic but to go about their lawful duties and other responsibilities without fear or apprehension.
“The Nigeria Police Force is a disciplined organisation and will not allow any situation to degenerate into disturbance of Public Peace anywhere in the Country”, he said.
The Mobile policemen in the Borno capital of Maiduguri staged a protest over non-payment of their allowances. The protesting policemen barricaded the command headquarters located on Maiduguri-Kano expressway. The protest disrupted traffic on the road.
One of protesting policemen, who pleaded anonymity, said they were angry over non-payment of their allowances in the last six months.
“About 10, 000 mobile policemen were deployed to the state from different commands, but we have not received our allowances in the past six months. We have been serving at the command headquarters since our deployment; but some of us deployed to other locations outside the headquarters were being paid their allowances as and when due.
“We have been facing hardships as a result of the non-payment of the allowances. We have made several complaints but nobody listened to us,” the aggrieved policeman said.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Damian Chukwu, blamed the non-payment on the delay in the passage of the 2018 budget and called on the protesting policemen to calm down as he assured them that their allowances would be paid soon.