20th November, 2015
Ayorinde Oluokun/Lokoja
It has been complaints galore from policemen deployed from different parts of the country to Lokoja, the Kogi State capital for the gubernatorial election holding on Saturday.
Some of the policemen who have been in Lokoja for over seven days awaiting deployments to the areas they will serve during the election openly complained of poor welfare and lack of concern for their well being by police authorities.
In all, the police said at least 15,000 of its men comprising 4,969 operatives of the Police Mobile Force (PMF) drawn from different squadrons across the country and 11,000 conventional police personnel will be deployed throughout the state for the election.
The police said on Thursday that at least five policemen will be deployed to man each of the 2,548 polling units across the state during the governorship election.
Policemen in their hundreds were seen by our correspondent hanging around any available open spaces along the Murtala Mohammed road, Kogi State headquarters of the Nigeria Police Command with their luggage lying around. Some, including the female officers are taking shelter in an Oando petrol station near the police headquarters waiting to be deployed to where they will serve during the elections.
The police officers openly defied their superiors to talk to journalists about their poor treatment.
“We have been here for seven days now. There is no allowance for our feeding or where to take our bath. Even, our allowances have not been paid,” an officer told our correspondent.
The grumbling police officers also complained of poor transportation arrangement as was also witnessed by our correspondent at the Police Headquarters on Friday morning.
While some of the officers were being transported in open trucks to different local government areas of the state, others were being transported in buses which were overloaded.
But Sotonye Wakama, the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of operations deployed to take charge of security during the polls told journalists on Friday morning that the issue of payment of allowances will be taken care of.
Williams Aya, the Public Relations Officer of the Kogi state Police Command also told our correspondent that the allowances that the officers are complaining about will be paid into their accounts.
Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State is looking like an entity anticipating massive public disturbance with massive presence of policemen on its major streets as security agencies gear up preparations to make the polls hitch free.
Also, security has been beefed up at the state headquarters of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) where non-sensitive materials were being loaded for distribution for the election.
Wakama is being assisted by three Assistant Police Commissioners in the provision of security during the polls.
A Commissioner will be in charge of each of the three senatorial districts in the state.