Pay Special Constabularies Four Years Arrears, Court Orders Police

Alex Enumah in Abuja

The National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), yesterday,ordered the Nigeria Police Force to pay the Special Constabularies a total of their four years stipends in arrears.

Justice Rakiya Haastrup gave the order while delivering judgement in the suit brought against the Inspector General ( IG) of Police, the Police Council, the Police Commission and the Attorney-General of the Federation.

Specifically, the court faulted the police for failing to pay the claimants their monthly stipends since they were engaged as Special Constabulary, and directed the IG and the Police Council to pay the claimants a monthly sum of N54, 566 starting from January 2021 to May 2024.

The plaintiffs, who were trained and engaged on community policing through intelligence gathering, had sued the police for refusing to pay them their monthly stipends despite making them serve the nation diligently for the past four years.

Contrary to the claims of the Police that the services of the constabularies were voluntary, the plaintiffs claimed and tendered documents showing that at the time of their engagement, the police had agreed to give them monthly stipends commensurate to the basic allowance of a constable in the Nigeria police force.
In the suit filed on their behalf by a constitutional lawyer, Chief Sebastine Hon, SAN, the constabularies alleged that the action of the police in denying them the stipends was not only unlawful but had put their lives in jeopardy as they could no longer meet with basic needs of life.

They, therefore, urged the court to hold that, having been lawfully engaged by police, they were entitled to the monthly stipends to enable them perform their duties effectively and diligently.

Besides, they claimed that due to the hazardous nature of their jobs, wherein seven of their members had already died in three states of the federation, they were entitled to receive pension from the police.

While only the AGF was represented and filed a response to the originating summons, the IG, Police Council and Commission did not respond despite evidence of being served with the court case.

In her judgement, Justice Haastrup agreed with the senior lawyer to the claimants that they had established that there was a contractual agreement between parties.

The Judge held that based on the agreement, the plaintiffs were entitled to the monthly stipends for their job.

While observing that the exact amount to be paid as stipends was not fixed by police, she held that the claimants were entitled to the basic allowance of N54, 655 monthly, pending when the IGP will fix their monthly allowance.

She, therefore, ordered the IG to within two months of the judgement date fix the amount due to the claimants.

She further ordered the defendants to forthwith issue letters of appointment to the claimants, having trained them, equipped them, issued them with uniforms and identity cards and deployed them to the states of the federation and the FCT.