Unbelievable! Police salary vanishes from bank vault

Posted by admin Headlines, Nigerian Police Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

Policemen attached to the Lagos State Command were shocked to the marrows yesterday, as they came back from the public holidays declared by the Federal Government to mark the country’s 51st independence anniversary, only to discover that money meant for their September salary had vanished from the vault of a microfinance bank.

Ironically, the bank is located inside the Police College, Ikeja. The discovery was said to have sparked pockets of protest from the shocked and disenchanted officers, who rushed to the bank yesterday morning but were sent back.

The money, N11.7 million was said to have been paid into the bank, which is behind the commandant’s office last Friday. It was gathered that some officers, who went to the bank the same Friday to withdraw some money for the independence celebration were asked to come back after the public holiday.

Daily Sun gathered it was when the staff of the bank resumed work at about 8.30 a.m yesterday that they discovered the vault had been opened while the money in it had disappeared.
The officers who had already received alert about the payment of their salaries could not control their anger when they were told that their hard-earned money had been stolen.
The angry cops, numbering about 50, had no other option than to vent their anger by staging a protest, calling for the immediate removal of the commandant and the arrest of the bank staff.

A police sergeant, who spoke to the reporter on the condition of anonymity, narrated how he and other colleagues went to the bank on Friday to collect their salaries but were told to come back yesterday.
He fumed: “When we now came, the bank officials asked us to go to a microfinance bank at Obalende for our salaries as the one in the Police College had been stolen. The bank officials knew what happened to our money, as the vault was not broken into because the thieves used the key to open it. It was a well organised theft because the bank staff would have paid us on Friday.”
When contacted for comment, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for Police College, Gerald Agwu, an assistant superintendent of police (ASP), said he was not aware of any theft in the bank as he was undergoing a promotional course in Jos, Plateau State.

-Sunwp_posts