Does the Police Force headquarters, Abuja or the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC), make funds available for election duties to
state Police Commands? This is the question bothering Divisional Police
Officers (DPOs) in Abia state.
There is growing discontent among DPOs in the state who are worried of
being made to contribute money to fund sundry ‘projects’ by the State
Police Commissioner, Mr. Leye Oyebade.
Police sources told Pointblanknews.com that the DPOs in the state
‘generated’ N2.5 million to mobilize men for the Ondo governorship
election, N2 million for Edo and N600, 000 for last week’s Rivers state
National and State Assembly legislative rerun.
According to a DPO in Umuahia, who pleaded anonymity for fear of
victimization, “I have served as a DPO for three years now. I cannot
understand why the CP has been demanding us to generate money to send our
officers to election duties in other states. All we have been asking is,
does the Force headquarters or the INEC not make funds available for
election duties? Even before I was posted to Abia, I learnt it has been a
tradition in the state command over the years for DPOs to raise money for
all sorts of issues that catches the fancy of the State Police
Commissioner. Any DPO who defaults is relieved of his position and posted
out to obscure positions.
“Where do they expect us to get the money from when we are supposed to be
fighting corruption? Whose duty is it to mobilize Policemen to election
duties, the State Police Command, IGP or INEC? Even with the money
contributed by the DPOs, there is no guarantee that allowances to
Policemen who participated in the election duties will be paid. After the
Ondo governorship election, you saw Policemen protesting over non payment
of their allowances. It is a serious problem.”
Pointblanknews.com further gathered that each unit head in every Police
Division in Abia is mandated to make daily ‘returns’ to his superior and
the DPO, who in turn, settles the Commissioner of Police. The development
has led to a scramble by senior Police officers to backbite each other for
Police Divisions in the state described as ‘juicy’.
A cross section of Police rank and file in the state who were interviewed
by our correspondent insisted that it will be difficult to stop extortion
among Policemen. According to them, “How can you stop extortion when you
are daily given targets on the amount of money to be returned to your
superior officers? Again, it is from the money we get on the road that we
buy fuel, maintain patrol vehicles and run our stations. No Policemen is
happy harassing and extorting money from motorists, but we are forced to
do so by circumstances surrounding our jobs. You will be courting trouble
if you default in making the daily returns. Of course, it has become a
tradition among Policemen.”
As at the time of filing this report, Abia State Commissioner of Police,
Leye Oyebade, could not take repeated calls to his mobile number.