Law permits police to collect money for private engagements – Okiro

Okiro stated that one-third of such monies should be given to the police officers involved in the private duties as allowances while the rest would be kept by the force. The commission chairman said this on a television programme, Political Platform monitored by our correspondent on Thursday in Abuja. He however did not specify the section of the Police Act that provided for this. “The police regulation, the Police Act are very clear on it; We have what we called private engagement, when you give policemen for private duties, a certain amount is normally paid of which one-third is kept by the police, two-third is paid to the police reward fund, it’s there in the law. The one-third is paid to policemen who performed the duty as allowances,” the former Inspector-General of Police stated. Asked if he was worried about the allegations of corruption against the force made by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Navy, Isah Misau, the police boss said he was concerned about it, but added that he did not know if it was true. When asked if he was worried enough to investigate it, Okiro retorted that this was not part of his mandate as the commission chairman. He said, “If it is true, it is really bad, if it is false, it is equally bad. During my tenure, we didn’t have this special protection unit and people were not paying, police are not a revenue generating body, we are there to protect people at the expense of government, not to generate funds.” Okiro said his agency issued a retirement letter to Misau, but noted that he was not sure about the one being paraded by the senator. “What I don’t know is whether the letter with him is the same one we issued because we have not seen the one he is holding, but our record shows that we issued to him a letter of retirement dated March 5, 2014; whether the one he is parading is genuine or not, we do not know,” he said. The police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, however, disagreed with the commission stance on Misau’s letter, saying it did not emanate from the police. He argued that the ex-DSP did not retire but resigned from the force to escape disciplinary action for alleged misconduct. Moshood explained that the police dug deep into Misau’s record and found that he had changed his date of birth on at least three occasions. He said, “We are investigating deeply all his antecedents; When he joined the police, he had a birth certificate, which he filled with his handwriting, with November 30, 1974 as his date of birth. He swore to another affidavit in 2011 and put his date of birth as November 30, 1973, lying under oath. “No matter the statement issued by the commission, to us, ex-DSP Hamma remains a deserter and he must return to the force to face disciplinary action.”]]>