Policemen, Families Thrown Out Of Barracks

Hundreds of policemen and women living in Police Barracks, Apapa, Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, including their wives and children have been rendered homeless.   P.M.NEWS learnt that the police officers and their families were thrown out of the barracks due to the ongoing demolition of shanties at the barracks.   It was gathered that the police officers were evicted following the directive of the Police   Commissioner in charge of the Port Authority Command, Sherifat Disu-Olajoku. The most affected officers were those serving under the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Umar Manko.   According to police sources, Disu gave 10 day-notice to the officers to move out of the barracks but before Manko could intervene and the deadline could expire, it was alleged that the affected officers with their families were evicted from the barracks.   When our reporter visited the barracks Monday, wives of the affected officers and their children were seen weeping  while moving their properties out of the barracks in mini trucks.   Some of the wives of the evicted officers who did not want their names mentioned lamented that they were not given enough time to move their properties out of the barracks let alone given the chance to look for alternative accommodations.   “It was last week they gave us notice to move out of the barracks. The moment we were notified, we started making efforts to meet Sherifat and Manko through Police Officers’ Wives Association, POWA, to seek for more time. But we woke up one day only to see that they had brought caterpillar machines to demolish and destroy our properties,” one of the officers’ wives alleged.   Another wife of one of the affected officers said  her husband went on an official assignment when she and her children were thrown out of the barracks.   The woman said she was confused and had no place to go with her children because the eviction was too sudden for her to make an alternative arrangement for accomodation.   She lamented that her children have not been able to go to school since the eviction.   Some of the affected officers, who were yet to remove their properties out of the barracks, expressed their anger against the police command for the sudden eviction.   They told P.M.NEWS that what they had done to them was unfair as they were not given adequate time to look for alternative accommodations before they were thrown out of the barracks.