By JOSHUA OLADIPO

No fewer than 480 Police Constables protested the non-payment of their salaries for 18 months on Wednesday in Osogbo.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the constables marched through strategic locations in the Osun capital, carrying placards with various inscriptions.

Some of the inscriptions read: “Pay our salaries now’’, “Okada riders are sleeping with our wives’’, “Pay us our stipends and allowances’’, among others.

Speaking with newsmen, PC Tijani Adewale said the constables had been denied their salaries after the completion of their training since May 2021.

He said in spite of the denial of their emoluments, they had remained committed to the duty of protecting lives and property.

Adewale said that three constables had lost their lives in the course of discharging their duties, while others were losing their wives to strange men.

He added that several efforts were made to ensure that the issue was given adequate attention and the salaries paid, but nothing happened.

Reacting to the protest, Commissioner of Police in Osun, Mr Adewale Olokode, ordered the protesting constables to stop the action and channel their demands to the appropriate authorities.

Olokode assured the protesters that the police authority in charge would treat their grievance.

“You are embarrassing the force with your protest; you should have channelled your grievances to the appropriate quarters.

“It’s just like you are disturbing public peace with your protest. As far as you are wearing this uniform, we expect you to maintain high discipline as force men,’’ he charged.

In another development, some police officers in the state complained that they were yet to be paid their duty allowances for the coverage of the Osun July 16 governorship election.

One of them who spoke on the condition of anonymity said officers from the State Investigation Bureau, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit, and Mobile Police Officers of MOPOL 39 had not been paid.

He said their counterparts deployed from outside Osun for the same election coverage had received their allowances.

“We have made efforts to find out the reason for the non-payment and we have not gotten any concrete feedback from the force headquarters.

“It is against the code of service to protest in demand for the allowance, but we are appealing to the Inspector-General of Police to look into our case,” he said. (NAN)

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