By Emmanuel Udom
Lagos
With the order for serving police officers, across various commands and units in Nigeria, to fill and submit their e-statement forms, there are strong indications that police pay processing offices nationwide may soon be closed down.
Observations by our correspondent in the last couple of weeks
showed that police officers went through hellish experiences over the delay in
the payment of their salaries for the month of October.
The delay was due to an order from the Central Bank of Nigeria,
CBN through the office of the Inspector-General of Police, mandating the
estimated 370,000 serving police officers in Nigeria to fill the newly
introduced e-statement form and submit same to police authorities for onward
delivery to the apex bank.
At the Lagos state police command headquarters in Ikeja and the
Ogun state police command headquarters, in Abeokuta, showed a mammoth crowd of
police officer sweating in the hot sun while trying to photostat their
documents in order to attached to the forms that were downloaded online.
A police inspector at the Lagos state police command, who spoke
off records, lamented that the order is that without the form being filled and
submitted, no officer could receive his or her salary for the month of October.
His words: This directive has brought untold hardships to all the
serving police officers across the federation even as the yuletide session is
drawing near.
But, a Assistant Superintendent of Police, serving at the Sango
Ota Police Command told our correspondent on phone that the Single Treasury
Account introduced by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, led to
the order on all federal government agencies to fill and submit the e-statement
form in order to ensure that their monthly salaries are paid directly into
their individual accounts without having to past through the police pay
offices.
The bottom-line is that Buhari is trying to block all loopholes
allegedly used by the police officers attached to the Mechanized Salary
Structures offices, MSS, the offices responsible for the processing of police
salaries and emoluments to deduct monies under flimsy excuses.
But, a Constable serving at the Federal Capital Police
Command in Abuja, lamented that as at Friday, November 6, 2015, even officers
who have gone through the hellish experiences of filling and submitting their
forms are yet to be paid their salaries.
According to the constable, most officers are grumbling as the
adverse effects of the delay in the payment of their October salaries is
heating them real hard.
However, Force Public Relations Officer, Olabisi Kolawole could be
reached on phone, Friday as she did not pick her calls for official comment on
the issue.
However, with the commencement of the payment of police salaries,
insider sources told our correspondent that police pay offices, popularly known
as mechanized salary structure, MSS offices may soon be closed down.
This is because with the
e-payment of salaries coming into being, the salaries of serving police
officers in Nigeria could be paid directly into their individual accounts by
the central bank of Nigeria, without
going through the MSS offices for processing, we gathered.
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