Human rights activist and convener of #RevolutionNow, Omoyele Sowore, has decried the poor salaries and the N1.5 million gratuity being given to police officers and retired police personnel respectively by the Nigerian government.
Sowore, the former candidate the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections, said it is disheartening that men and officers of the Nigeria Police Force put their lives on the line for 35 years only to get N1.5 million (about $1,000) while corrupt average senators take home at least N15 million monthly.
Sowore said this while reacting to a video in which the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, announced that there would be an award night for some officers of the Nigeria Police.
According to Egbetokun, despite the sacrifices made by the police personnel, they are hardly rewarded.
Egbetokun said the Nigeria Police Awards and Commendations Ceremony would come up on April 15, 2024, at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.
However, Sowore said that this “explains the wrong priorities that have bedeviled ‘leadership’ in Nigeria.”
He wrote on his X handle on Sunday, “Recently, it came to light that an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) cadre of the Nigeria Police Force takes home a retirement gratuity of less than or about $1000 after serving their nation for 35 years rather than looking at how to fix the remuneration of the rank and file of the Nigeria Police the IG of Police is planning an “award night” at Transcorp Hilton in Abuja to reward some of their loyal boys and/or girls.
“This is going to be another time-wasting, money-gobbling jamboree in Abuja that the police don’t need.”
“All policemen and by extension civil servants need a living wage, adequate housing, dedicated and professional transportation, life insurance, proper training and retraining, hazard allowances, and a decent environment of work that humanizes them and most importantly a leadership that understands police work, not an “award night” for loyal police bootlickers!” he added in the post.
Also, in a March interview Arise News’ ‘The Morning Show, Sowore who said he didn’t like the police because of their human rights violations and assaults, even against him, noted that despite his ugly experiences with the police, he thought it was unconscionable for retired police personnel to be getting N1.5 million as gratuity.
He said a police officer who stopped him in Lagos and disclosed the amount retired personnel received as gratuities to him.
He said, “I thought he wanted to shake me down, and when I lowered my glass, he said Mr Sowore, I have something to tell you. Do you know that we are being paid N1.5 million gratuity and I said that must be some very gratuitous insult of a gratuity.
“That was my reply and I started tweeting right from there. It is very interesting that most people didn’t know this. It is also interesting that the police in this country will protect with their lives the people who are underpaying them.
“As I mentioned an average senator is taking home N15 million a month, he will take a police officer, do you know how many gratuities of police officers is the one-month salary of a senator? “You then go back to governors who served for four years and they have all the allowances and gratuities that you can’t even finish counting them.
“The one in Lagos, Tinubu, who started it, had to build a house in Lagos and Abuja. In fact, the house in Lagos is so luxurious that he was staying there before he moved to Aso Rock.
“He is entitled to change of cars every two years, he is entitled to police, DSS, he is entitled to N100 million if he goes for medicals in Nigeria and if he goes abroad, the state will be responsible for that.”
He lamented that such states have to spend billions of naira for former governors “who probably also stole more than enough while in office”.
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