Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Police officers deployed on special duty in Benue State have raised an alarm over the non-payment of their operational allowances for four months, saying they are being forced to fight Nigeria’s deadliest bandits and communal militias while their own institution has turned its back on them. The affected personnel, drawn from the 45 Police Mobile Force and other squadrons deployed from Abuja, told SaharaReporters in an exclusive interview published on September 27, 2026, that they have been abandoned without financial support while confronting deadly ambushes and violent clashes across the state. “We’re dying by bullet and by hardship alike,” one officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation.
The officer, who arrived in Benue from Abuja on January 28, 2026, said the non-payment extends beyond his squadron. “I’m from 45 PMF on special duty here in Benue State. We came from Abuja to this state on January 28, 2026. For four months now, we have not been paid operation allowances and the state government is not doing anything about it,” he said. He added that the issue affects other police units stationed in volatile local government areas, including Ukum, Kwande, and Logo. “This issue is not only affecting 45 PMF but also other squadrons in places like Kwande, Ukum, and Logo local government areas”. He said officers are moving from bush to bush, flushing out terrorists and bandits while the state government does nothing to assist them.
The human cost of this abandonment is measured in bodies. The officer disclosed that three of his colleagues have been killed in recent weeks. “A few weeks ago, we lost two of our men in an ambush in Logo Local Government Area and a week before that, we lost one Inspector to armed bandit attack”. The officer’s account, while unverified by the police hierarchy, aligns with a pattern of casualties documented in public records. On September 10, suspected armed bandits attacked Ayilamo community in Tombo Council Ward of Logo LGA. The attack began at about 6:12 p.m. and continued for roughly seven hours. Police Mobile Force personnel, tactical teams, and conventional officers engaged the attackers. Four police officers were killed. They were identified as Paul Ina, Mohammed Yusuf, Oge Ikechukwu and Edeh Andrew. Seven civilians were also killed, bringing the officially confirmed death toll from that attack to 11. Four days later, two newly deployed Mobile Police officers were killed while escorting the Divisional Police Officer of Ayilamo back to the community from Makurdi. The combined toll was six police officers killed around Ayilamo in four days.
The 45 PMF officer’s complaint is not the first of its kind. In July 2026, Daily Trust reported that Mobile Police officers deployed for peacekeeping operations in Plateau State had not received their monthly allowances for seven months, alleging that funds released by the state government were being diverted. One officer said they were promised a monthly allowance of N150,000 each by the Plateau State Government and received payment only for December. “We later learnt that the government has continued releasing the money, but from January to July we have not received anything. We don’t know who is diverting the funds,” he alleged. The Force Public Relations Officer, Anietie Iniedu, told Daily Trust that the operation in Plateau was not handled by the police but by a joint task force coordinated by the military. He said the Force was not responsible for those allowances and urged aggrieved officers to exhaust internal mechanisms rather than going public.
The central question in the Benue case is who is responsible for the allowances. The PMF is part of the federal police structure, but officers stationed in a state operate under the state Commissioner of Police, subject to the Inspector-General. Historically, the Nigeria Police Force has acknowledged that inadequate federal duty-tour funding sometimes forced it to rely on state governments to offset assignment costs. The Benue State Government has said it has supported security agencies with more than 150 operational vehicles and 600 motorcycles. The Benue Police Command has paid insurance benefits to families of fallen officers. But none of those facts answer the central allegation. Where are the four months of operational allowances? Until the deployment orders, approved allowance schedules, payment records, and bank trails are produced, there is no sound basis for saying who failed to pay or whether money was ever released.
The silence from the authorities has been telling. SaharaReporters said it was unable to reach the Benue State Police Command for comment. The Command’s spokesperson, DSP Peter Aondongu, did not take calls, and a text message seeking clarification was not answered. The Nigeria Police Force has not issued a statement on the Benue officers’ claim. The Benue State Government has not responded to the allegation that it has done nothing to assist the deployed officers.
For the officers on the ground, the math is simple and brutal. They are asking for the money they are owed. They are asking for the support they were promised. They are asking for the basic dignity of being able to feed themselves and their families while they risk their lives for a country that seems to have forgotten them. “Please we just need your voice because we can’t speak for ourselves, please,” the officer said.
Six officers have been killed in Benue in four days. Three more died in the weeks before that, according to the officer’s account. The officers who are still alive are asking whether anyone in Abuja or Makurdi cares enough to send them the money they are owed before they become the next names on the list of the fallen. The paper trail should not be allowed to disappear behind them. But for now, the men who were sent to fight Benue’s deadliest battles are fighting a different war, one against the very system that deployed them. And they are losing.
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