Police officers, men threaten strike

Some officers and men of the Nigeria Police are threatening to embark on strike next month if their grievances are not addressed, Peoples Daily reliably learnt. The aggrieved persons, mostly Inspectors and others in the rank and file cadre in the Imo state command of the Force, had even met secretly in Benin City, the Edo state capital, where they perfected their plans to embark on strike by November, once their complains are not swiftly addressed. Our correspondent learnt that the grouses of the police officers and men include urgent reversal of the recent mass transfer of at least 100 of them to crises-ridden parts of northern Nigeria on what they called “Political reasons”, allegedly masterminded by the Imo state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Muhammad Musa Katsina, whom they said compiled a list and sent to the Force headquarters in Abuja. Another complain of the aggrieved persons is that some of them had spent between eight and 30 years without promotion. “Since the Presidency, the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Mr. Mike Okiro, the Minister of Police Affairs, Caleb Olubolade and Inspector General of Police, Abubakar Mohammed, refused to listen to us we are going to fight for ourselves by resolving to embark on strike in November”, one of the aggrieved persons said. Efforts to get reaction of the Police Forces headquarters on the planned action failed yesterday as the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba neither answered our reporter’s call to his cell phone nor replied an sms sent to it inquiring about the proposed strike.