Our pension is ridiculous, Ex-IGP laments

A new twist was introduced to the deplorable condition of service, salaries, emolument of police officers and pensions in the country as retired top police chiefs, including a former Inspectors- General of Police, said their pension is nothing to write home about.

They stated that besides the monthly take home of a constable which is less than N42,000, despite the fact that he must purchase his uniform and accoutrements, Nigerian police officers are one of the poorest paid in the world.

The deplorable conditions of service of police officers’ have come under the searchlight in recent times following global #EndSARS protests, as the officers and men blamed their corrupt tendencies on poor salaries and emoluments. In separate interviews, a former IGP, an AIG and retired Commissioners of Police, said that not only are their salaries one of poorest in the world and grossly not commensurate with the services they render, the pensions are some of the worst. The former IGP said that the pension is very poor.

“I can tell you without mincing words that none of the past IGPs receive more than N250,000 every month, and that is a fact. My pension is deplorable. It is not something you can publish. The government knows it and it is high time something is done about it.” Also, he told our reporter that the entire low welfare thing was done to subjugate and pauperize the police and empower the armed forces to take over internal security duties in the country.

One of the 21 Assistant Inspectors-General of Police prematurely retired in 2016 to pave way for the appointment of the immediate past Inspector General of Police, said his gratuity is very appalling and inconsistent with the 31 years he put in the service of his fatherland.

“I received my gratuity shortly after I left service but I can tell you that the monthly pension is very appalling. I have chosen not to even touch it, but left it in the bank while I face my farming. It makes one so sick when one remembers how paltry it is. Many of us are not happy about it,” the retired AIG said. A retired Commissioner of Police complained in like manner, noting that the salaries of the officers and men of the police should be reviewed along with the pensions in order to insulate them against corrupt practices.

In his discussion with our correspondent, he regretted that after putting in 32 years in service and served as Commissioner of Police in Edo State at a point his monthly pension is about N90,000, something that is comparatively insignificant when compared with his colleagues in the armed forces. My colleague and friend who retired from the Nigeria Army about the same time receives about N800,000 monthly.

That is the issue and it means that some drastic things should be done about the entire salaries and pensions of the officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force. Another former CP, Barrister Abayomi Akeremale, who was Force Education Officer and later Commissioner of Police in Kogi State, lamented the inadequacy of police salaries and pension.

“After spending 33 years in the Nigeria Police Force, my pension today is N75,000 and that can hardly buy a tyre for my car. Go and write it and let the world know. My saving grace is that I am a practicing lawyer and that is what is sustaining me today,” he added.

Furthermore, he told our reporter that though retired officers’ gratuity depends on how he structured it with his Pension Funds Administrator, (PFA) , the entire benefit is very poor, and regrettably, several committees have been set up to review Police Pensions, but none of them has been implemented.

“Some CPS and other officers have structured it such that they received a lump sum as gratuity at the point of retirement and a paltry sum is paid about N75 to N80,000 monthly thereafter. Some got about N10million as gratuity, but tell me, is that commensurate with your over 30 years in service along with various hazards?” The ex-IGP regretted that several Generals and Directors- General of the Directorate of State Services (DSS) receive between N1million and N1.5million monthly pension, which is higher than that of IGPs by over 600 per cent.

“Unfortunately, several programmes and committees set up since 1999 have been dropped. Look at the five-year police development plan instituted by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo during his tenure as President, also to the ex-IGP MD Yussuf Police Reform report of 2006 and the Dan Madami Committee of 2010.

None has been implemented. “I think the then President Goodluck Jonathan started a similar programme to be jointly financed by the Federal Government and their state counterparts, but remember the then Governor Babatunde Fashola took the Jonathan government to the Supreme Court in 2014 to stop deductions from federal allocations due to Lagos State.

“The same thing was replicated in May this year when Rivers State government threatened to sue the Federal Government over deductions of N11billion from allocations due to state governments and to fund the police,” the ex-IGP said.  (Sunday Telegraph)