IGP: Officers Will Not Protest Non-Implementation Of Salary Increment

Usman Baba, the Inspector-General of Police, claims that no officer will go to such lengths to protest the non-implementation of a salary increase because they are aware of the consequences.

He made the statement in response to a report in the media on Monday that officers were planning a protest on March 26 to demand raises in their salaries and allowances.

Last year, the Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Dingyadi, stated that the new salary package for police officers would be implemented by January of this year, but this has not happened.

“It is pertinent to restate that 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 IGP said in a statement released yesterday by the Acting Force Spokesman, Muyiwa Adejobi.

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“The men and women of the Nigeria Police Force are fully aware that a strike or other deliberate disruption of law enforcement services by any security organization is mutinous, and the Force’s personnel will not descend to that level of disloyalty and indiscipline at any time, as policing services are paramount and essential in the maintenance of order and peace in the country.”

The planned protest by officers was described by him as a “attempt by unscrupulous individuals to bring the Force into disrepute, misinform the general public, and heat up the polity.”

“Since that approval, the Salaries and Wages Commission has issued an implementation circular, and the Honourable Minister of Police Affairs and the IGP have been working with the Federal Inland Revenue Service to ensure that tax deductions are stopped as directed by the president and approved by the Federal Executive Council,” he said.

“It is important to emphasize that the president took the initiative to direct the process of increasing salaries and allowances without any demand from the Police,” the statement continued.

“As a result, the Federal Government is fully committed to implementing the new salary package.”