The Integrity Youth Alliance has called on the Inspector General of Police to ignore the sponsored publication in an online media titled “EXCLUSIVE: Top Nigerian Police Officers, Ministry, Others Resist Police Chief Egbetokun’s Controversial Push For Personnel Tenure Extension, Just Months Before His Retirement” and concentrate on increasing the strength, training, and welfare of the police personnel.
In a statement on Sunday, 30th June 2024, signed by the Alliance Board Chairman, Adewole Kehinde, and Secretary General, Danjuma Lamido, respectively, says that IGP Egbetokun is not a legislator who can pass or amend laws. Hence, the publication by online media that he is behind the bill and has allocated a significant amount of funds to lobby for its passage is a complete figment of the publisher’s imagination.
“The Police Act 2020 is well explanatory on the tenure of the Inspector General of Police, as Section 7 subsection (6) of the Police Act of 2020 stipulates that “The person appointed to the office of the Inspector-General of Police shall hold office for four years.”
“When the Police Act 2020 was passed into law on 8th July 2020, IGP Egbetokun was a Commissioner of Police assigned to Kwara State, so he couldn’t have influenced the National Assembly to okay the four-year tenure for the office of the Inspector-General of Police, the statement said.
The statement read further, “The publication lied when it said that the “proposed extension of the service year and retirement age for police officers met with widespread criticism from key stakeholders, including the Police Service Commission (PSC).”
“It is on record that on Thursday, August 24, 2023, the Committee of Retired Inspectors-General of Police advocated 65 years as retirement age and 40 years as tenure of service for police personnel.”
“The resolutions are in the retreat’s seven-point communiqué issued on Thursday in Ibadan by retired IGP Solomon Arase, who was the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC) as of then.
“The insinuation by the Ministry of Police Affairs, the Ministry of Police Affairs, and the National Salaries and Wages Commission in their submission that implementing the extension would have unintended and far-reaching consequences, detrimental to the overall health and operations of the police force; the service years of police personnel would lead to stagnation, hindering progress and innovation within the force is false.
“On June 5, 2023, President Bola Tinubu signed into law a Constitution Alteration Act to introduce a uniform retirement age and pension rights for judicial officers.
“This alteration now pegs the unified retirement age for all judicial officers of superior courts of record at 70 years.
“Also, the Federal Executive Council approved the bill to extend the retirement age of teachers from 60 to 65 years in January 2021; former President Buhari transmitted the bill to the National Assembly in June of that year.
“The bill, which has now become law, increased the retirement age of teachers from 60 to 65 years.
“The legislation also extended the duration of service for teachers in the country from 35 to 40 years.
“Therefore, this Bill will not set any bad precedence for other agencies such as the military and other paramilitary agencies to also advocate, as the extension of service years of police personnel is not peculiar to Nigeria alone. Countries like Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the United States have increased the retirement age for their police personnel.
“We wish to inform Nigerians that the amendment of the Nigeria Police Act, 2020 is not only about the extension of retirement age and service years of police personnel aimed at improving the experience and expertise of the police workforce; it is also about retaining experienced personnel and reduce the cost of training and recruiting new officers; improve the morale performance and job satisfaction in the workforce of the Nigerian Police Force; and address the shortage of experienced police personnel.
“We call on IGP Egbetokun to ignore any distraction and continue to advocate for intelligence-led policing by leveraging technology, data analytics, and information sharing and enhance the police force’s ability to anticipate and combat emerging threats effectively, the statement concluded.
