A police constable, Leke Obaba, on Thursday evening stripped himself naked at the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja, Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, to protest over his unpaid salary.
The police officer, who told newsmen that he joined the police force in 2003, complained that he had not been given his salary since he started working with the force.
“You won’t believe that I have no access to my account since I was demobilised from the Mobile Police Force, MOPOL, 53 Akwa Ibom State. For over 11 years I have worked I was not paid any salary. I was later transferred from Kaduna Command to Lagos last year. Though when I was in Kaduna I was taken to a psychiatric hospital, I have wife and children, how do I feed them?”
When contacted, the Provost Marshal of the Command said there was nothing he could do about it.
It was also gathered that the constable had earlier been detained but later freed so that he will not disturb suspects in the cell.
A police source at the command said the constable was transferred to Lagos last year, but another police source was skeptical about the constable, saying that he has not seen him before and that he poses a danger to other officers at the command because of his unruly behaviour.
“I’m seeing this man for the first time in my life. If they eventually give him a gun, I hope he will not kill the whole people at the command,” a police officer said.
When contacted the Lagos Command Police Public Relations Officer,a Deputy Superintendent of Police Mrs.Ngozi Braide did not pick her call.