Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps, LNSC, says trainees claiming they are not being paid salaries by the security outfit have not been engaged.

Its Board Chairman, Israel Ajao, said this after appearing before lawmakers in the Lagos State House of Assembly, who had summoned him on April three to give an account of the Corps’s operations since March last year.

His appearance came amid complaints of nonpayment of salaries by some trainees, who accused the management of the LNSC of being unfair to them.

Ajao, Deputy Inspector General of Police retired told newsmen that those claiming to have undergone training without being paid had yet to been given employment letters and had not been deployed with kits.

“Anybody you see without the LNSC uniform is not working for the agency yet. I can’t send people out to go and tackle criminals without uniform.

“The LNSC is like a company that’s oversubscribed. It has become so successful that almost everybody is interested in working for it.

“You can’t just say you have done training for three days and you are now neighborhood corps.

“There is a procedure after training; you must be verified. There are conditions for eligibility after three days training,” he said.

Ajao also said the agency does not have the habit of delaying payment of salaries to those employed,

“The batches 1 and 2, which started work April 1 last year are taking their salaries as and when due.

“We have taken batches 3 and 4, numbering 3219 last Friday, and they are going to start their salaries this month, where is the delay?”

Earlier, Ajao, appearing before the lawmakers, commended the House for its interest in community safety, and Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, for giving the agency permission to employ 5,700 people for deployment to the 57 council areas.

The chairman said the first challenge the corps confronted was to battle the Badoo cult killings in Ikorodu

Ajao, a former Lagos Police Commissioner, said intelligence gathering by the corps to the police had helped in reducing community crimes in the state.

The chairman highlighted several achievements of LNSC with dates,including arrest of kidnappers, cultists, robbers and others.

On salaries, he said only April salaries had not been paid to batches 1 and 2 employees.

Ajao also spoke on the process of engaging applicants, explaining that many certificates presented by them were found to be fake while verifying them.

He said a consultant was engaged to carry out the verification, saying if such persons with questionable credentials were employed after their three-day training, presented uniforms and paid, it would be counterproductive.

On dismissals, Ajao said the victims must either have possessed fake certificates, been too old for the task, or physically impaired.

The chairman, who appeared in company of his team, said that the agency done a lot to reduce crime at the grassroots level.

Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, in his remarks after Ajao took questions from lawmakers, cautioned the agency to desist from any form of negligence and politicisation of the operations.

Obasa said: “I agree that you need to do investigation of results, but it is taking time. It should have been completed before training is completed.

“This is foundation of state police, if we do it well. Don’t give us reasons to review this law, don’t politisise the employment; there is a difference between politics and security of people.”