The wife of a slain police officer has made a case for better armed policemen in the fight against terrorism, reasoning that sending men with inferior weapons to fight well-armed Boko Haram insurgents is like deliberately sentencing them to death.

The widow, who is wife of Kuve Matthew Vincent, one of the 16 policemen killed during a recent attack on Gamboru, a town in Borno State which borders Cameroon, said her husband would probably have still been alive if he had been better equipped.

Vincent made the statement while giving vote of thanks on behalf of other widows after receiving a cash gift of a N1 million from the police force.

She also told the state commissioner of police, Lawan Tanko, that it is an added pain to families of officers killed in active service when their husbands’ salaries are immediately stopped following their demise, because most wives of policemen are unemployed.

“It would only amount to double tragedy to stop the money that should have been given to a mourning widow,” she said.

Earlier, the state government gave out N16.8 million as palliative to the widows of the 16 policemen killed and the remaining N800,000 was shared equally to the officers wounded.

Lawan explained that the money was just a gesture of assistance and not the payment of death benefit, adding that arrangements are already in place for the payment of the entitlements of the deceased policemen.

The commissioner noted that welfare, which includes payment of benefits of fallen officers to their families, was one of the cardinal objectives of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar.