Frank Mba: Why some police officers deployed for Anambra election haven’t received allowances

Frank Mba, spokesperson of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), says “clerical issues or typographical mistakes” may be the reason some officers deployed to Anambra have not received their allowances.

Mba said this in reaction to information in circulation that police officers deployed to Anambra for the governorship election are protesting over unpaid allowances.

Speaking at the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) situation room in Abuja on Saturday, the police spokesperson said over 70 percent of the officers deployed to the state have been paid.

“For the first time, we paid the money of personnel even before the commencement of the election,” he said.

“We deployed about 34,000 officers and as at noon on Friday, over 29,000 of them had received their money. I did not check today. And I’m sure a lot more would have received their money today.

“But we understand that there are some who have not received their money. This could be as a result of clerical mistakes in forwarding their details; it could be typographical mistakes.

“It could be any other type of mistake in communication, because the way these allowances are worked out is that the contributing commands are supposed to send these details from their respective squadrons if they are members of the police mobile forces or from their respective commands. Apart from that, it has to move from the office of the DPO to the CP’s office and then down to us.”

Mba, however, gave the assurance that the issues will be sorted out, adding that the money is available in the police account.

“We are already working on that to find out why these few numbers have not received their money. But the reassuring message here is that we’ve got the money. There is no complaint about the availability of the funds. We’ve got these allowances and it is warehoused in the police account and not with the CBN,” he said.

“The inspector-general of police has already given directive this afternoon that the field commanders and the strategic managers on ground should compile the names of persons who have not gotten their allowances and get all the necessary details correctly.

“The issue of welfare is very dear to us and this time around, the money being paid to them is an improved version to what was being paid before. Before, they don’t get paid feeding allowance. They just pay you your allowance and it is assumed that your allowance would take care of your feeding and accommodation. But this time around, a separate feeding allowance is actually worked out and added.

“These monies are being paid into their account and not over the table so nobody can pilfer with anybody’s money.”