Some newly recruited officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Academy have accused the agency of owing them six months’ salaries.

The officers say they have yet to be paid their salaries since they joined the agency last year.

NDLEA in a memo obtained by journalists agreed that it owed the officers January salary, saying the February salary would be paid with January arrears. 

However, the affected officers noted that it is disappointing that the agency failed to address the nonpayment of their remuneration for the other five months. 

They said they are tired and demoralised by the condition they found themselves in. According to them, the situation is so painful as they have been living on borrowing to sustain themselves and their families. 

The new personnel added that no formal communication has been done by the agency to assuage their pain.

They said their appointment letters were dated 25th July 2021 and they were trained and deployed immediately to far-flung parts of the country without a dime being paid to date.

“Personally, I borrowed money to report to camp for training as I don’t have parents or relatives who will sponsor me to the training,” one of them told SaharaReporters.

“I collected a loan of N45,000 with an interest of N20,000 monthly, hoping after spending two months in the camp, we will be paid but there has been nothing to show for it.

“When my colleagues raised the issue of nonpayment of salary early February this year, they promised to pay February and January at the end of February but up till now, only February and March salaries have been paid.

“I swear, we collect food on credit and sometimes we survive on the monies suspects’ relatives give ranging from N1, 000 to N2,000, depending on the kindness of the suspect’s relative. I’m making this complaint with pain in my heart. I must be sincere, we are not doing the job with sincerity because of the situation. 

“Everybody is afraid to speak out because, during our training, they told us that if we protest, we will be sacked.”