Daily Independent Online.
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Wednesday, July 07, 2004.
The Police and late officers’ families
Reports that the Inspector-General of
Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, has intervened to halt the scheduled ejection of the
families of police officers who had died in active service in Lagos have indeed
brought immense relief, not only to the traumatised, mourning widows and their
orphaned children, but to many concerned Nigerians who had wondered whether
policies are ever issued with human face in our clime. The affected families had been given
till March 31, 2004, to move out of the quarters they had occupied with their
late breadwinners in the barracks
to make way for some other officers to whom the Police Works and Housing
Department had decided to allocate those accommodations.
But the cry of these helpless widows who had sent
very passionate appeals to the Inspector- General to deliver them from being
plunged into greater trauma after their tragic bereavement touched the
conscience of the nation. “Now
that quit notices are served us, where do the police authorities expect us to
go?” the women chorused with
hot streaming tears. Happily their anguished cry secured the sympathy of Mr.
Balogun. According to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Isaac Israel
Ajao, the IG has overruled the
ejection order and directed that the widows and their children be allowed to
remain in those quarters.
We commend Mr. Balogun for this positive
intervention in favour of these widows. We hope that the intervention is indeed
genuine and not intended to buy time, and allow public attention divert to other matters, before these
helpless widows and their children are made homeless. Indeed, the case of these
families has once more brought to the fore the harrowing ordeal families of police and even military
officers are subjected to after their death. Police and military officers have a constitutional duty of providing
security to the nation and its citizens. While carrying out this task, they get
exposed to diversities of hazards, during which they are expected to display
unqualified gallantry and altruism. In the process, many of them pay the
ultimate prize. Instantly, their wives are brutally widowed while their children become sudden orphans,
left to now sweat out through the often choking complexities of existence
without the soothing, supporting, and protective presence of the family’s
head and bread- winner. We recall with pain, the tragic death of a crop of army
officers in the Charlie 130 crash of 1992 in Ejigbo, Lagos. Indeed, to expect a
decent treatment to the families of slain officers cannot in any way amount to
asking too much.
Certainly, nothing could be more demotivating to
serving police officers than the fear that their families could be subjected to
the untold trauma of homelessness
should they suddenly get killed while faithfully executing their job of
safeguarding lives and property. That the ejection of these families was even
contemplated in the first place without any alternative offered was utterly
reprehensible. Also, some other
late officer’s families, no doubt, may have suffered similar fate before the present case
brought the obnoxious policy to the public domain and attracted the IG’s intervention. The police
may have to review their cases and see how to cushion the effects of such
ungodly policy already executed against them.
Certainly if these women have alternative places, the
barracks would be the last place they would wish to live in after their
husbands’ demise. The police
must now commence the process of
putting in place workable fall-back positions that make ugly scenarios
like this scandalous ejection unnecessary. A workable insurance scheme is one
option which must be vigorously pursued. Officers for their part must be encouraged
to form cooperatives, which have been known to constitute viable fall-back
alternatives incase of fatal accidents. We urge also officers and men of the
Force to not be indifferent to these alternatives. Certainly, it pays a lot to
save for the rainy day. Again, of what use are groups like Army officers’
wives associations if they lack the capacity to constitute effective platforms
for widow-care schemes like these to flourish?
One way of conferring integrity on the insurance
scheme is to ensure they are
workable and all obstacles that limit access to the funds are seen to
have been removed. More
importantly, the benefits and entitlements to families of late officers
should no more be delayed. These
will boost the confidence of serving officers and bring out the best in them.
