THE Oyo State governor, Mr Seyi Makinde, has said the families of the five policemen killed during the EndSARS protest in the state would be compensated from the N500 million set up by the state government after the crisis that swept across the state and the country.
This is just as the governor also promised that the state government would also accede to the request of the state’s Commissioner of Police on certain things to be done, like the reconstruction of burnt police stations, patrol vehicles, among others.
Governor Makinde, who spoke during a courtesy visit to the state police command headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan, on Monday, sympathised with the command over the death of five policemen and the 12 injured officers.
While going down memory lane on his relationship with some policemen, even before he became a governor, Makinde said not all policemen are bad, just as he charged officers and men of the command to look beyond the activities of thugs who hijacked the protest.
He said he supported the protest, as part of the demands was for better welfare package for police personnel, just as he lamented that it was hoodlums who hijacked the protest that began attacking policemen and burning stations.
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“Therefore, I am here to tell you that you are not alone. You must put everything that happened behind you and look forward.
“I am here with you to make the load you are carrying lighter,” Governor Makinde said.
Earlier, the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) Adeleye Oyebade and the state’s Commissioner of Police, Joe Nwachukwu Enwonwu, had earlier thanked the governor for choosing the first working week in the month of November to visit the police command.
On the arrival of the governor, he was ushered into the office of the Commissioner of Police, where he was handed a document containing a list of requests by the command to the state government, something which the governor said everything would be done.
The governor also used the opportunity to decorate 16 officers of the command who were promoted from Superintendent of Police (SP) to Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP.)
