Daji Sani in Yola
The Adamawa State Police Command has confirmed the arrest of 46 volunteer personnel of the Nigeria Securities and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Adamawa State.
The spokesman of the police, DSP Suleiman Ngoruje who confirmed the arrest on Friday, said the police arrested the NSCDC officers because they barricaded the major road that links Yola town and Jimeta and also barricaded the entrance of the Federal Secretariat making it difficult for workers to go to their offices.
He said they had been charged to court for barricading the major road while staging a protest for the payment of their allowances and regularisation into the service.
“The police only arrested them for blocking the major road and the gate of Federal Secretariat and our attention was drawn to it,” he said.
However, about 631 volunteer NSCDC officers had staged a peaceful protest in Yola, the state capital, on Thursday demanding for the payment of their allowances and regularisation into the service
The spokesman of protesters who was later arrested among others, Mr. Livingston Mohammed, who spoke to newsmen in Yola during the protest said over 630 people were captured as volunteers in 2008 but up to date none of them was regularised.
He said, “We have been screened by the committees but as at this moment, we are still awaiting regularisation.
But when contacted, the Adamawa State Commandant of the corps, Nurudeen Abdullahi, said ”there are no volunteers of the corps in the state.”
Some Volunteers told THISDAY that the commandant of the NSCDC in the state was economical with the truth saying many of them were deployed to the 21 local government headquarters of the state with promise that they would be regularised into the service.
“Some of us have spent more than 12 years as volunteers while you will see many who have somebody at the top conscripted into the service leaving us who have been volunteers for many years,” said one of protesters who escaped arrest by whiskers.
She said it was shameful for the commandant of the NSCDC to say what he said. “ We were screened in 2008 and we are still awaiting our regularisation as promised.”