Dele Belgore, body guards in showdown over unpaid salary

*Ex-guber candidate’s vehicles impounded

…as aggrieved aides demand N9m payoff

A former Gubernatorial Aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election in Kwara State, Mohammed Dele Belgore, SAN, was yesterday embroiled in a face-off with some of his body guards over alleged unpaid salary.The body guards allegedly worked for him during his botched campaign in the 2015 elections and were also with him in 2011.The three body guards, two of them whose names this medium gathered as Kenny and Rasheed were guests at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at the Police Headquarters yesterday with Belgore's aides who allegedly reported the matter with the police.The embattled Belgore's body guards were dragged to the state police headquarters for allegedly impounding their boss' vehicles following his inability to pay them off.They reportedly demanded for about N9 million as severance package from Belgore, who was also the guber candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2011, b but he allegedly offered them N300,000.According to a source, the Body Guards who were allegedly used throughout the election period, requested Belgore to pay them off after the services they rendered with alleged claim that there was an agreement with the former guber aspirant to that effect.It was also gathered that the aggrieved parties had also allegedly been paid the sum of N300,000 earlier for their services.Two vehicles allegedly belonging to the PDP Chieftain, a Toyota Hilux Van and another Toyota car which were allegedly impounded from the aides were seen yesterday being driven into the premises of the Police Headquarters around 4:00pm.It was further gathered that the body guards reportedly held on to the vehicles for the refund of their money before the matter was reported at the state CID.Another source informed National Pilot that the embattled body guards had worked for Belgore for about six years and demanded for a pay off after the end of their services which covered the 2011 and 2015 elections respectively.“There was an agreement between them and that they (the body guards) will be settled after the end of the election exercise”.“They worked for him throughout and when it was time for them to be paid, he refused to do so on the ground the he lost the ticket to contest the governorship polls in the state.“The vehicles were among their working vehicles and not that they allegedly held on to it for the refund of their fees. He (Belgore) was the state Coordinator of the Goodluck re-election campaign in the state and yet he has refused to pay them as agreed despite the money he had collected,” the source, said.But an aide to Belgore who spoke on the condition of anonymity with this medium at the police headquarters yesterday said there was no agreement between his boss (Belgore) and the body guards and challenged them to produce any written document to that effect.“There was no agreement whatsoever but they are just being greed. Some of them have left since the botched campaign but they remained and insisted on collecting N9m from him for their services even after he had lost the campaign'', the aide said.At the time of filing this reports around 7pm last night, all the parties were still at the force headquarters with the body guards were allegedly made to sign an undertaking regarding the matter.

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