Policemen decry poor living conditions

isaac

February 4, 2015 2:17 PM

Officers of the Nigeria Police have been complaining of the dilapidated barracks they call home.

Many police officers serving in the Lagos State Police Command are not happy with their living conditions which some of them say can be compared to abodes for pigs and other animals.

According to some officers who spoke to Pulse.ng on the condition of anonymity, most of their barracks spread across the state are not meant for human beings, not to talk of law enforcement officers with their families.

Some of them say that their families stand the risk of being wiped out in the event of an epidemic because of their squalid barracks.

A mobile police officer living at the Ikeja Mobile Barracks, lamented the poor and dilapidating structures, and fears some of them could collapse anytime soon.

"You need to come to the barracks to see the kind of structures we live in. The buildings are dilapidated and our children stand the risk of getting injured because the slabs on the staircase falls off anytime.

If there is an epidemic, we stand the risk of losing lives."

Another officer at residing at the Ojuelegba Police Barracks thanked God that Nigeria was able to curtail the Ebola Virus Disease that ravaged the country some months back, believing that residents of the barrack would have been infected in their large number if the disease had found its way there.

"We thank God that the Ebola Disease was contained by the Nigerian government because if it had spread to our barracks, many people would have been infected.

We have cried and begged the government to help us put up good structures to live in but it seems all of our cries have fallen on deaf ears.

Our barrack is only fit for pigs and other animals. If an epidemic breaks out now, we will be at risk."

Another mobile police officer said living in a barrack in Lagos is like living in hell.

"The barracks is old and needs reconstruction. Living here has not been pleasant at all. The soak-away is bad, and it brings out foul smell. The walls are cracking, and their rods are getting weak."

See the photos of different police barracks here.

isaac