Police widows: Cheques issued us by FG bounced

Wives of the police officers killed during the EndSARS protest in Oyo State have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to order the Nigeria Police Force to pay them the compensation they were promised for the death of their husbands.

Though the widows said cheques have been issued to them, they couldn’t cash the money as expected.

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They said they had withdrawn their children from schools because they could not get money to sponsor their education anymore.

Speaking on behalf of other victims at a press conference in Ibadan on wednesday, Mrs Beauty Akanmu said they had not been able to cash the cheques issued to them by the federal government since January.

She said the N500,000 cheque issued to each of them bounced when they attempted to cash it.

Daily Trust reports that five police officers were killed while many sustained degrees of injuries in Oyo State during the October 2020 protests.

The affected officers are; Adegoke Ajibola, Rotimi Oladele, Peter Abegunde, James Akanmu, and Alidu Yusuf Wada.

“We are here today to tell the world about our plight. Unfortunately for us, we were jobless when our husbands were alive. The cheques presented to us by the IGP were not honoured. We were told that the cheques are having errors since January’’, she said.

But in a swift reaction via telephone interview with one of our correspondents, Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, explained that some officers’ wives should be aware that some accounts could not receive large sums of money.

Mba also charged the bank workers to always ensure they explain things to their customers especially police officers’ wives who might have brought cheques on whether they have the wrong account that huge amount of money cannot enter.

“It’s not possible for the cheques to bounce. When you have the wrong account, the thing may not go through,” he said.