12th December, 2020
By Ikechukwu Iweajunwa
Police Officers Wives Association (POWA) on Saturday, empowered 40 widows of police officers in Imo state.
PM NEWS notes that items donated include industrial sewing machines, deep freezers, pop-corn machines and cash donations.
Chairperson of POWA in the state, Mrs Abimbola Akinmoyede, remarked that the donation would help to make the widows become self-reliant.
Akinmoyede, who is also the wife of the Imo Commissioner of Police, commended the group for considering others after the death of their husbands.
“The motivation for this programme is the neglect often suffered by families of policemen, who lost their breadwinners in active service.
“Imo Police Command lost some policemen to the #EndSARS protest while performing their duties,’’ she said.
“This empowerment is targeted at making these women and other less privileged among them to be less dependent and contribute to their homes.’’
She appealed to the Police authorities to look into the issue of delay in payment of gratuity to families of deceased policemen.
She also advised the authorities to engage wives of deceased police officers as “Supplementary Police”.
One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Florence Azuka, complained that she had suffered untold hardship since the death of her husband.
Thereafter, she commended POWA for the gesture, saying that with the empowerment, she would henceforth be self-reliant and contribute meaningfully to the upkeep of her home.
Another beneficiary, Mrs Ofem Ogom said could not thank POWA enough because “since my husband died, this is the only time I am feeling relief’’.
NAN