Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Monday announced an increase in death insurance benefit for police officers who die in active service to the state to N10 million.
Before now, the rank and file of the police drew N1 million while senior officers got N2 million as insurance death benefit from active duty.
The raise is to further encourage policemen serving in the state, especially those with the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), to give their best in the fight against crimes and all forms of criminality and ensure the safety of the citizens.
Governor Ambode, who spoke at Lagos House in Ikeja, after he was presented with two awards recently won in South Africa by the RRS, said security and safety of the people remained one of the focal objectives of his administration.
The RRS, at the awards, presented by Security Watch Africa (SWA), had emerged as the best anti-crime police squad in West Africa. The state government also bagged award as the best security and most safety conscious state in Africa.
Speaking after receiving the awards, Ambode said the people of the state were appreciative of the gallant efforts of the unit at bringing down crime rate in the state, especially in the last one year.
He commended the state’s commissioner of police, Fatai Owoseni, for his purposeful leadership of the command, saying it was evident that the police in Lagos was performing well.
While alluding to the need for increment in the death insurance benefit of officers, Ambode recalled the recent deaths of some officers in active service, adding that while government was not praying for the re-occurrence of such, it was appropriate to reasonably reward the family of any officer in the event of eventual death.
“Recently, we lost some police officer due to no fault of theirs and then some form of accidental incidences across the state.
“I have directed the State’s Pension Office and the Office of the Chief of Staff that we are going to increase the payment that we make to officers that die in active service, and then we are increasing that irrespective of whether you are a junior or senior office. If you die in active service, the payment that will be made by the state government is being increased to N10 million from this moment onward,” he said.
