The Nigerian government has approved a 20% salary increase for police officers.
President Muhammadu Buhari had promised a pay increase following mass protests, known as #EndSARS, against police brutality last year.
The minister for police affairs, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the salary increase was part of measures to discourage officers from taking bribes and extorting citizens.
He said it was also to “improve the relationship between the public and the police”.
The increase will take effect from January 2022, he added.
A salary tax waiver for junior police personnel has also been approved and takes retrospective effect from October this year.
Calling to account
The #EndSARS protests were sparked by widespread allegations of police brutality, including extortion, torture and extrajudicial killings, especially by members of the police’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit, known as SARS.
The unit was disbanded in the wake of the protests and various panels of inquiry have been set up in several states to investigate human rights violations by the security forces before and during the protests.
However, campaigners say that, over a year later, officers implicated in abuses have yet to be held to account.
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