AN OPEN LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE, GOVERNOR AKINWUNMI AMBODE BY CORPS MEMBERS OF THE LAGOS STATE NEIGHBOURHOOD CORPS

Dear Sir,

It is with great sadness this letter is been composed by corps members of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Corps Agency (LSNC) , a laudable initiative by you to create a safer Lagos for residents whilst creating employment opportunities for her youths.

However, it saddens our heart that this great initiative of yours has been bastardized by the retired Deputy Inspector General of police, Israel Ajao who was placed at the helm of affairs to ensure a smooth sail of this great initiative.

The retired DIG who is expected to understand the sensitivity that surrounds security matters in Lagos and the need to protect the interest of its members of staff so they don't get compromised has rather done the opposite in the last one year since the inauguration of this laudable project. The Agency under the leadership of Israel Ajao is popularly renowned for its constant non-payment cum late payment of salaries of those within its employment.

Citing the example of the first and second batch of Corp members who after being deployed from camp to their places of primary assignments without been paid any training allowances were owed over 5 months salaries after their deployment and it took the timely intervention of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and the House of Assembly for these owed salaries to be paid up after which these same set of corps members were owed for another six months which were eventually paid up December 2017 after several bitter complaints by Corps members.

Several corps members lost their lives, shelters and practically had to live from hand to mouth within this terrible period. The most painful thing about this is that the salaries owed these people had been released long ago to the agency and been used by the top officials of the agency, the retired DIG been the ring leader for their personal interests.

This same situation is currently been faced by the 3rd and 4th batch who have been working for the last 11 months without any pay whatsoever to compensate their efforts to secure lives and properties within their jurisdiction.

If we could take us down Memory Lane a bit, the House summoned the leadership of the Agency retired DIG Israel Ajao on the 3rd of April 2018 to come and explain to the house why these sets of corps members hadn't been paid their salaries as at the period of the summon where he vehemently denied knowledge of these corps members been under the employment of the agency.

He made some lame excuses such as the corps members claiming to work were without uniforms forgetting the fact that these same corps members were summoned to their Obanikoro office last year October and their measurements taken whilst an account with First Bank of Nigeria was opened for all the corps members on the same day and they were asked to resume their duty posts whilst awaiting their uniforms which till date is yet to be given to these innocent people.

Secondly, he referred to the fact that these corps members who claimed to be working were working without employment letter of which even the current batch 1 and 2 corps members who currently have their uniforms are yet to be given any letter of employment.

Thirdly, he referred to the fact that these set of corps members were yet to be cleared thus were not a part of the workforce whilst he forgot that batches 1 and 2 corps members were just cleared November 2017 (7 months after they were deployed) whilst batches 3 and 4 corps members were cleared February this year.

The last straw that broke the camels back was on the 24th of April 2018,when an official statement was made asking just batches 3 and 4 corps members who have been cleared as at the above date to submit hand written application letters on or before Friday, the 27th of April 2018 for a job that was applied for online.

We can safely say, the retired DIG is one of our very corrupt government officials who is used to getting away with oppressing the masses simply because they think they can get away with it and we are therefore using this medium to appeal to the Governor, Human Rights lawyers and members of the public to please waddle into this matter considering the fact that such irresponsible acts should not go Scot free and most of these corps members had to retire from their former places of employment to take up this job.