By ALEX OTUDOR

They also bemoaned the fact that since the brutal killing of their bread winners, no senior police officer has paid a condolence visit to commiserate with them. “Nobody - from the Commissioner, his deputies or assistants has visited us. Nobody, officially from the state command has paid us condolence visit. Only, members of the Police Officers Wives Association (POWA) paid us such a visit. It is very sad, very discouraging, demoralizing,” lamented a spokesperson of the families.

According to her, “some colleagues of our late husbands have even started to lobby for our apartments in the barracks, barely two weeks after the sad brutal killings.” She disclosed that “one of the policemen killed in that operation was a squatter and his wife is about two months pregnant for their first baby. What becomes of the fate of the woman?

Although the command’s spokesman, Mr. Bode Ojajuni told NewAge that the command was liaising with the families to harmonize the burial arrangements, the families believe that they “have been abandoned to their fate.”

“Nobody is talking of their salaries, their Cooperative Society funds, benefits among other entitlements of any policeman killed by robbers on duty. They should be entitled to N500,000 each as benefits of getting killed in active service, then their National Insurance benefits and all that. Nobody has approached any of us on these or any issue,” lamented another wife.

NewAge gathered that the colleagues of the slain policemen in SARS may bear the cost of burial as they have started making voluntary contributions towards this end. Their colleagues, all SARS operatives in Lagos State have since the incident taking to wearing arm bands as a sign of mourning.

The police is expected to provide the casket or a sum of N20,000. The command is also expected to play prominent a role in the burial activities. But the force has over the years not lived up to these responsibilities to the extent that fallen policemen are usually left at the mercy of a few friends, colleagues and family members, noted one police man who spoke on condition of anonymity.

One of the slain policemen has since been buried according to Muslim rite, while the corpse of one would have to be taken to Katsina State and two others to Edo state for burial.