By Linus Aleke, Abuja
The Police Service Commission has approved salary payments for the 2021/2022 Police recruits who passed out of the Police Colleges and have been in formal Police work in different Police Commands and formations since the past six months without salary.
The non payment of six months salaries followed the lingering tussle between the Commission and the Nigeria Police Force, over which of the institutions possess the powers to recruit the Constables, which, of course have occasioned untold hardship on the affected personnel.
Before, now, the PSC and the NPF, have been at each others neck over who is statutorily empowered to carry out certain roles, a crisis that did not only attract legal fireworks but also led to premature and disgraceful exit of past Chairmen of the Commission.
Head, Press and Public Relations Unit, Mr. Ikechukwu Ani, in a statement on Sunday, said the Commission’s decision was reached in the interest of national security anchored on the need to amicably resolve the intractable and reccuring institutional clash.
He added that the Commission’s prompt response also followed outcry and appeals from Nigerians that the 2021/2022 Police recruits who are yet to be enrolled into the Federal Government’s Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, and who had not received salaries, six months after they passed out from the Police Colleges and duly posted to Police Commands and formations for active Police work, are not made victims of the face off between the Commission and the Nigeria Police Force.
Mr. Ani said, the Commission’s approval for the enrollment of 1007 recruited personnel into the Nigeria Police Force in the recruitment exercise of 2021/2022 into the IPPIS payment platform for the purposes of salaries and other emoluments has been conveyed to the Accountant General of the Federation.
“In the letter signed by Dr. (Mrs) Ifeoma A. Anyanwutaku, Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Commission and dated, 5th May 2023, the Commission requested for “prompt and favourable response in activating and emplacing the necessary processes and procedures at ensuring that these Police Officers are immediately captured on the required payment platform and paid accordingly,” the statement revealed.
He noted that the Commission’s Chairman Dr. Solomon Arase, feels a sense of discomfiture over newspaper reports that the Officers had since resorted to alms begging and other untidy acts to sustain themselves and had moved immediately to resolve all pending and envisaged issues surrounding the matter.
The former Inspector General of Police, had announced at a Stakeholders meeting with Civil Society Organizations that the face off between the Commission and the Nigeria Police Force will soon be over to the benefit of both parties and the greater interest of the nation.
