Police To Get New Salary Increase Payment Next Week

There are very strong indications that the new salary increase approved by President Muhammadu Buhari in November last year for policemen would be paid next week.

This is to boost the morale of policemen for effective performance in the forthcoming elections.

Investigations by Daily Independent reveal that the presidency released a special fund two weeks ago for the payment.

But the fund earlier released was believed to be inadequate to pay junior and senior personnel, prompting the police authorities to write to the presidency requesting for extra fund to pay personnel.

It was further learnt that the new salary increase announced by President Buhari was not supposed to be paid now until the 2019 budget is approved and money released to various ministries and departments.

This is because the salary increase was not included in the 2018 budget of the police.

However, investigations have revealed that the presidency reasoned that if the new salary increase was paid before the elections, especially in January, the morale of policemen would be high to perform creditably well.

Subsequently, the former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, was requested to work out the difference in the salary increase and forward this to the presidency for release of funds.

The Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Force Accounting and Budget, and the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG), Finance and Administration, were said to have submitted the salary difference to Idris who in turn submitted it to the presidency.

However, the shortfall was said to have been released last week, just as the new IGP Adamu Mohammed took over from Idris.

Investigations also revealed that the arrears would not be paid with January salary, but would be spread over subsequent months.

Presidential Spokesman, Femi Adesina, could not respond to text messages sent to him on the matter.

Similarly, Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Frank Mba, responding to our SMS, said: “I have no immediate information on this. However, I’ll check with the appropriate departmental head and revert to you as quickly as possible.”

But as at press time, no response was received from him.

Source: Daily Independent