Current Police Reform A Postponement Of Evil Day – Ex Policemen …As Forum Slams IGP, Top Ranking NPF Officials Over Complicity

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By UbongAbasi Ise & Joshua Emmauel

 

The Akwa Ibom State Forum of Retired members of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, says current attempt at police reforms is just a waste of time and a postponement of evil day unless the police are treated as their counterparts in military and Department of State Service, DSS.

In their memorandum to the Judicial Panel of Investigation on Incidences of Police Brutality and Human Rights Violation sitting in Uyo, dated 10th November 2020 and signed by their state coordinator, CSP Uwem Eyo (rtd.), and the Deputy State Coordinator, DSP Uzor Mathew (Rtd.) as well as the secretary/legal adviser, DSP Sunday Ntuk, Esq., the NPF retirees said the police reform would remain incomplete unless the Nigeria Police Force is exempted from the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS.

“The issue of police brutality and other excessiveness is borne out of anger, hopelessness and frustration. Until the retirement structure of the police in terms of pension and gratuity is revisited, no police reform will be complete. We want to state with every sense of sincerity of purpose that failure to address this issue by the government is a clear postponement of evil day for this country. The inclusion of the Nigeria Police Officers enlisted before June 2004 in the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) violates Section 173 (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) because it is to the disadvantage of the retired police officers,” the petition reads.

The ex policemen stressed that non-exemption of the Nigeria Police Force from the CPS, which came in force in 2004 when some officers were already working for about 20-23 years before it was brought and implemented, has  disadvantaged their men and officers.

While noting that the police duties are also associated with high risk factor similar to that of military and the DSS, the ex-policemen suggested to the committee that government should be advised to exempt the NPF from CPS like the military and the DSS, adding that “whatever risk factor that qualified the military and the DSS for exemption should have qualified the police the more for exemption.”

They also pointed that the eminent state of the police officer on retirement under CPS and the poor remuneration while in service is enough to cause an average human being to try hand on underhand practices.

The group attributed the grievances of the policemen to successive Inspector-General of Police, IGP, including other bigwigs in the Force and the federal government, predicting that the build-up of the agitation would spell doom in the future.


“The awareness of the extent of cheating by the top echelon of the police on the other ranks in the Force and deliberate acts of neglect of the police by the Nigerian government is glaring now among both serving members and retirees. The grievances and agitations are building up and will certainly go out of control one day except it is at rest and the time is now.  A stitch in time, they say saves nine. All the successive IGPs have failed to address this injustice because they are guaranteed rotational Chairmanship of the Board of Directors of NPF pensions,” the memo reads.

 The retirees submitted that the police should be exempted from the contributory pension scheme CPS and placed under Police Pension Board of Pensions Transitional Arrangement Directorate, PTAD, like the armed forces and the DSS.

 

©The Rights Journal

 

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