Usman Baba Alkali, the Nigerian Inspector-General of Police (IGP), on Monday said stakeholders engaged in the process of salary addition for officer’s are still working on the new salary prepared for them by the federal government, and are willing to make it real.
IGP Baba said that the salary increment was the President’s idea, emphasizing that the police didn’t request for it, he also said the officers knows that it is rebellious to interrupt any plan of law enforcement services without putting it into practice.
The Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Dingyadi, make it known last year that the new salary for police officers would start by January 2022, but the implementation is yet to be achieved after three months.
Officers of the Force were said to have plan to embark on a protest by March 26 so that their salaries and allowances would be increased but the police chief stated that no police officer would protest salary increment because they know the effects of protest.
The IGP, in a statement signed on his behalf by the Acting Force Spokesman, Muyiwa Adejobi, dismissed the report, saying it was an “attempt by unscrupulous individuals to bring the Force to disrepute, misinform the general public and heat up the polity.”
He said, “Since that approval, the Salaries and Wages Commission has issued an implementation circular, the Honourable Minister of Police Affairs and the IGP have been working with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to ensure the stoppage of tax deductions as directed by the President and approved by the Federal Executive Council.”
According to him, the Nigeria Police Force is a regimented and disciplined organization with laid down rules and guidelines for addressing grievances and in no circumstance is a strike action one of such means.
The police boss added, “It is pertinent to emphasize that the IGP is accelerating efforts to ensure the full implementation of the increment of salaries and allowances proposed by the President and approved by the Federal Executive Council.
It is important to accentuate that it was the President’s initiative without any demand from the police to direct the process of increasing salaries and allowances. The Federal Government is therefore fully committed to the implementation of the new salary package.”
