By Michael Ofulue
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For  bolting away  from their duty posts, no fewer than 15 senior officers of the Ondo State Police Command have been queried  over their failure to report back to their various offices 48 hours after the  conduct of the Presidential and National Assembly elections.

The affected officers were majorly drawn from the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID)  of the command.

The Hope reliably gathered that the affected officers were understood to have  completed the assignment  at their various duty posts during last  Saturday’s election  and went back to their various homes instead of reporting to the office as they were earlier directed by the authority.

Our reporter who was at the SCIID  police headquarters along Igbatoro road in Akure saw some of the affected officers answering  the queries .

One of them who spoke with The Hope but pleaded  anonymity said they were surprised to have received  the queries despite the fact that they performed  their assigned duties on the election day.

“We are surprised to receive  queries  because we performed  our duty on the election day and after the peaceful conduct of the elections,  we went back home on Sunday to rest. We don’t know why the queries were given. The authority asked  us to ensure that the areas we monitored  elections were peaceful before going and that was what we did.

“You know in police rules and regulations, you must obey before complain and that is why you see some of us trying to answer the queries and we pray that the authority will listen to our pleas and forgive us”, he stated.

A competent police officer who confirmed  the development said the affected officers were expected to report to office on Sunday after the conduct of the elections on Saturday but did not .

He explained that despite the fact that the elections in Ondo State were generally  peaceful ,policemen saddled with the duty of protecting lives and property were supposed to be on duty 24 hours  in case of any thing that may call for mobilisation of officers..

He stated that the queries were  to serve as  deterrent to others who might behave the same way in the next governorship and State House of Assembly elections on March 9.

Contacted, the Ondo State Police Relations  Officer, Mr Femi Joseph said if the story is anything to go by it means it is only an  administrative procedure.