The Nigeria Police Force, NPF, has allegedly dismissed one Inspector Sunday Umaru over a Facebook post he made protesting his unpaid entitlements.
A human rights organisation, Prison Inmate Development Initiative, PIDI-Nigeria, which is serving as his advocate, in an interview with Vanguard, condemned the trial, dismissal and imprisonment of the Police Inspector.
According to the Executive Director of PIDI-Nigeria, Mbami Iliya, he received a petition from the ex-police officer, who alleged that on June 13, he was deployed to Dapchi Local Government Area of Yobe State with his team, where they spent three months without receiving any form of allowance and other incentives as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said the complainant told him how their counterparts in the Army on the same special assignment were catered for, every two weeks and were supplied with enough food items, including N15,000 palliative and N30,000 in their bank accounts.
His words: “In the case of the policemen who were sent there to work, it was a shameful thing. The situation became so much unbearable for them that they resorted to begging for ordinary bread and water just to keep their bodies and souls together.”
Sabka further explained that the ex-police officer got into trouble when he made a post on Facebook in protest of his unpaid entitlements.
He said: “In my meeting with Inspector Sunday Umaru on September 2, at the Potiskum Correctional Facility, he told me that he was an Inspector attached with Mobile Police, MOPOL 8, in Jos, Plateau State, under the Nigeria Police Force with Force number 210138.
“He told me that because of his protest on Facebook, on August 22, he was taken to Damaturu, Yobe State and was locked up at CIID for five days without food before he was arraigned via F.I.R on August 28, before Chief Magistrate Court III, Damaturu, by one Sergeant Hayatu Musa who alleged that he committed an offence in contravention of Sections 397, 399, 392 and 114 of the Penal Code, and was subsequently detained and dismissed from the Force.”
The human rights organisation, however, urged the Police to release, reinstate the dismissed officer and pay him all his entitlements in the shortest possible time.
He added: “It is our submission that we totally condemn the trial, dismissal and imprisonment of the whistleblower, Inspector Sunday Umaru, of the Nigeria Police Force.
“We call on all institutions, organisations and well-meaning individuals to jointly condemn this injustice, and take necessary measure to see that Inspector Sunday Umaru is re-instated and compensated accordingly within the shortest possible time.”
Meanwhile, all efforts to reach the Public Relations Officer of Bauchi Command, Kamal Datti, for his reaction proved abortive, as he did not respond to several calls put across to his line.
