Media Executive Seeks Special Insurance for Families of Policemen

The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Graphic Newspaper, Mr. Dayo Thomas, has urged relevant authorities to put in place a special welfare program for the families of serving policemen in the country.

He made this plea during an advocacy visit by the Integrity Forum to his office in Lokoja, Kogi State, at the weekend.

Led by the President, Blessing Ogbe, the group lamented the rate at which policemen are being violently killed and their families hunted and attacked by criminals.

According to her, over 50 policemen have been killed in the country in the last one year while the families of many of the officers are being attacked daily.

She stated that the ongoing armed conflict, insecurity, lack of state protection, and recurring humanitarian crises had

further exposed police officers and their family to serious abuse.

She cited the ordeal of one such victim, Inspector Tuesday Oluwasegun Osagbemi , a native of Ponyan in Kogi state, who was killed in front of his office in Ibadan, Oyo State leaving behind a wife and children.

She said: “You would recall that the wife of the immediate elder brother of the deceased who is also a police officer and presently out of the country, Mrs Oluwafunmilayo Esther Ayodele alleged threats to her life and that of her children which was reported to the police and also published in newspapers. “

According to newspaper reports, Mrs Ayodele had alleged threats to her life and that of her children.

Their house was burgled without anything removed and she was assaulted and sustained injuries which almost cost her her life as she is an asthma patient.