Kano Police: FG Yet to Compensate Families of Slain Policemen

 IGP, Mohammed Abubakar

The Kano State Police Command  Thursday disclosed that 16 months after the attack on the state by terrorists, which claimed the lives of about 192 people, including 40 police officers,  the families of the slain officers are yet to be compensated by the federal government.

The disclosure, however, came on the heels of the reports that many residents of Hausari ward in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, who left the area as a result of the stench oozing from decomposing corpses deposited at the state Specialist Hospital, may relocate back to the area, as the state government had started evacuating the corpses.

But the Kano State Police Command, while receiving the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North, at the Bompai headquarters, noted that: “Families of the slain officers have not received any form of support from the government since the unfortunate incident of January 20, 2012 which would have assisted in cushioning the effects of their anguish arising from the death in the hands of Boko Haram terrorists of the loved ones.”

The command also told the committee that the families of the deceased police officers have continued to appeal to the command to take up their case.

The committee was told that the command lost 40 officers in that single attack of January 20, 2012; while a total of 192 persons were killed, including security personnel from the State Security Service (SSS), the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and Nigerian Customs Service (NCS).

While taking the visitors round the police headquarters, where they inspected the various explosives seized from suspected militants of the Boko Haram sect, the command disclosed that about 6,000 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were intercepted by the command’s Bomb Disposal Unit, most of which were detonated.

On his part, the chairman of the Committee, Alhaji Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, promised the bereaved families of the slain police officers that efforts would be made towards ensuring that they were compensated via their recommendation.

He said: “You are not going to be abandoned, you are not going to be rejected, we will take your case to the Federal Government; and through our recommendations, Mr. President will surely attend to your needs and support you.”