The Nigeria Police Force has blamed the delay in payment of some officers who participated in the July 16 Osun governorship election on a technical issue encountered by a new generation bank.
The Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, made this known in a statement released on Friday.
Adejobi distanced the police from the delay, noting that the force had made adequate arrangements for the payment and some officers received their payments before the election was conducted.
Although he refused to disclose the name of the affected bank, the police spokesman described news reports blaming the force for the delay as misleading and unfounded.
The statement read, “With regards to the payment of allowances of Police Officers who participated in the Osun State Gubernatorial Election duty, it is pertinent to emphasize that officers scheduled for the duty had their account details forwarded to the Police Accounts and Budget (PAB) office at the Force Headquarters where payments were prepared and disbursed accordingly.
“The said payment of allowances to cover the election duty was disbursed directly into individual accounts from the PAB Office and not through any State Police Command. As such, individuals started receiving payment alerts even before the commencement of the election.
“However, one of the new generation banks (name withheld), with whom some of the officers’ accounts are domiciled, reported delays in disbursement due to technical issues. This was immediately followed up and from all indications, the concerned bank has commenced payments.
“All complaints with regards to this have been addressed internally and every officer captured for the election duty has been paid.
“This situation is nouveau(new) as it has not been experienced in the previous Anambra and Ekiti gubernatorial elections. It is fully the bank’s fault and not that of the Force. Officers affected were communicated via SMS and internal memo as to the situation. Continuous complaint on this particular delay in payments which has been addressed amounts to impatience and indiscipline on the part of the affected officers.
“The reports and the news on non-payment of election allowances as widely publicized is misleading and unfounded and should be disregarded.”
