BY MIKE OSAROGIAGBON
Nigeria’s Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun has urged police officers serving in Edo State to ensure they discharge their duties in a way that will attract the people’s prayers noting that the prayers he received from Edo people as Mopol 5 Commander in 2010 is still working for him.
IGP Egbetokun stated this while addressing men and officers of the State police Command in Benin during his maiden duty tour to Edo State, today.
He advised operatives of the command to be transparent and honest in discharge of their daily duties as members of the public are taking note of them.
“Do the best you can, serve the people to the best of your ability and show commitment to the highest standard of integrity and public trust.
“The best job in the world is the job of a policeman. It is a job you do and people will pray for you. It is also a job you do and people will give you the opposite of prayer. So, it is you the policemen who will decide which one you want”, IGP Egbetokun said.
The police Chief explained that the aims of the Federal Government and Police administration is to have a police force that will be well positioned to respond to the dynamics of crimes and criminalities in the societies.
“The Federal Government is committed to improve police welfare and we are also doing our best to ensure that policemen have improved welfare.
“Recently, we launched the police housing scheme. The intention of having a police housing scheme is to provide affordable houses to all police officers across the ranks.
“With what we have in place and what we are putting together, houses would be affordable for all police officers such that you can’t not serve the police for 35 years, retire and not have a home.
“That is what we are working on and we are getting support from the federal government. This is to show to you that the government and the police administration are committed to improving welfare for all police officers”, he stated.
On police officers’ pension, IGP Egbetokun disclosed: “We are also working very hard on improved pension earnings for our retired officers. Very soon we are going to see the details.
“We also have various insurance schemes for the police officers. We have four categories of insurance schemes for police officers.
“We have the group life assurance scheme, the group personal accident scheme, IGP Family welfare scheme and the Nigeria Police welfare insurance scheme. All these are for the benefits of Police officers”.
The visiting IGP also said that the Nigeria Police was rated recently as the most improved agency in anti-corruption in Nigeria as it would not have been possible if the officers have not keyed into the new policing vision of emplacing a professionally competent, service-driven, rule of law compliance and people-friendly police force.
Earlier, his host, the Commissioner of Police in the state, CP Funsho Adegboye, informed the IGP of the many achievements recorded by the Edo state command, particularly in the area of bursting high profile criminals such as the suspected killer of a 400level female student of the University of Benin, UNIBEN, and arrest of a leader of a dreaded cult group terrorizing Edo State.
High point of the Egbetokun’s visit was the commissioning of the newly built ultra-modern Benin Area Command Headquarters located at Upper Sakponba Road in Benin City.
Also present during the IGP official visit were the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 5, Arungwa Udo Nwanzue and other principal officers of the zone and Command.
