The Nigeria police force duty is to enforce the law in Nigeria and are being paid with taxpayers money. As at present, the force has a total number of about 371,800 men and able-bodied officers scattered among the various departments of the Nigerian Police. Although, the federal government has said in a recent report that it would increase the number of force officers to 650,000.
The Nigeria police was established in 1930 and have 36 commands spread across different states of the nation. The 36 commands are further grouped into 12 different zones which are controlled by 7 different administrative organs with over 2,000 police stations spread all over Nigeria for easy reach. The head of the Police in Nigeria is the Inspector General of Police whose salary is also the highest in the force.
The Nigerian police officer’s salary and welfare package are dependent on his or her rank in the Nigerian Police and grade.
Also with the new munimum wage increase from N18,000 to N30,000 recently by the president, it is expected that officers of the force should see an increase in their pay.
The Police also operate in various arms and units in the course of delivering in their areas of job specification;The arms include;
Arms of the Nigeria Police
Administrative arm
Anti-Fraud Section
The Central Criminal Registry
Special Anti-Robbery Squad
X-Squad, General Investigation
Special Fraud Unit
Legal Section
Forensic Science Laboratory
Interpol Liaison
Homicide
Police Mobile Force
Anti-Human Trafficking Unit
Force Intelligence Bureau
DCI Kaduna Annex and Counter Terrorism Unit.
President Buhari announced recently that he has increased the salary of the police officers in the country. Please refer below for the new figures.
New Police Salary Structure 2019 (Monthly)
While we know that the salary of police officers after minimum wage would be increased, we haven’t had information on that.
Here is the New Increased Nigeria Police Salary As Approved by President Buhari in November 2018.
- Police Constable (PC) II – N84,000
- Police Constable (PC) I – N86,000
- Sergeant Copral (SC) – N96,000
- Sergeant Major (SM) – N119,000
- Inspector Of Police (IP) II – N167,000
- Inspector of police (IP) I – N254,000
- Assistant Superintendent of police (ASP) II – N271,000
- Assistant Superintendent of police(ASP) I – N296,000
- Deputy Superintendent of police (DSP) – N321,000
- Superintendent of Police (SP) – N342,000
- Chief Superintendent of police (CSP) – N419,000
- Assistant Commissioner of police (ACP) – N483,000
- Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) – N531,000
- Commissioner of police (CP) – N1.5million.
Beyond Salary increment and implementation of welfare package, there are indicatons that members of service also suffers certain adminitsrative challenges caused by the Police Civil Service.
As part of the requirements of a Police Officer, he must be ready and willing to give in to transfer at any point from his place of duty, to anywhere within the country as deemed by the service.
The situation is not so simple when it comes to law enforcement and many other criminal justice fields. Policing is considered a profession. And like any other profession, professionals must be trained and – perhaps more importantly – certified to perform their job.
A policeman is entitled to disturbance allowance once he or she gets transfered from his place of duty to another area or state to operate. Our source stated that the Police Commission does not make adequate remuneration and allowances available to facilitate the payment to ease the trouble of the transferring officer.
Another respondent said that only 3 out of 10 policemen who get transferred processes his or her disturbance allowance to the stage of collection. Most people don’t get the allowance eventually.
“Some people will wait and work for many years and even get redeployed without getting the disturbance allowance for the first deployment“, he added.
There is also the provision for 28 days accommodation allowance for the officer who is getting transferred. This is to enable the office to get adequate accommodation and logistics in place so as to settle down within a month of his deployment.
Pieces of evidence show that most policemen ended up stranded in the first two weeks of their resumption to the new place because of lack of provision of accommodation allowance. The only lucky one is the policemen who are able to network their way around the standing officers in the place so as get a place to squat with at other policemen apartments.
Before any transfer or deployment is complete, officers must be brief of what to do on operational order particularly if his posted to crisis-ridden areas, so the officer may be informed of th social routine and cultural value of the new place. The provision for training also needs to be addressed, as the report also shows that most of the policemen deployed across Nigeria have no peculiar training that could secure their adaptation in the ridden area. They are like dogs which have been thrown in wolves den, without any personal adaptive equipment.
Speaking with another Police officer who was recently deployed to Ondo State, he decried the deplorable state of his uniforms and other police kits he’s been given in the last 6 years. He stated that complete kit should come with the deployment so he wont appear tattered in a new place he intends to start a new lifestyle.
In a practical instace, he also disclosed First CIID Malisons transfer where 277 SPO from the rank of CSP to ASP then 400 inspectors and rank and file where transferred out at a go despite the police service commission chairman order that an officer must server three and the half year before transfer out.
In this case, 70% of people transferred out are not up to 1 year some are 3 weeks, 6month, 1year means that DIG violates the police service commission order.
When asked his view on the Police Reform bill newly signed into law, he said, “It is welcoming and a good one in this present day. A right step in the right direction especially with the unbearable extra judicial killings trending in Nigeria currently. But you should also know that, there is no fire without smoke.
This thing is sometimes out of frustration, just the way other private workers could be frustrated with their work and how they are being treated by their employees.
“ Even common health insurance is a big problem for the government to get for police officers. They at a point began that but they owe the insurance company, hence when the need arises, insurance won’t show up. This is bad for the country in general because the police won’t respond to distress calls or they will show up later when the crime has already been committed, and they would keep on carrying out their frustration on innocent citizens; which is bad.”
Several abandoned policemen are out there, waiting a miracle to take care of their health without help from government. Until every policeman’s health; including mental and otherwise becomes top priority, there may just be a call for another all-encompassing police reform
