Stephen Olufemi Oni, Ilorin

Retired police officers in Kwara State have staged a peaceful protest to demand their immediate removal from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as “President, NASS and IGP should honourably exempt the police from the CPS, Establish Police Pension Board to manage gratuity and pensions, Mr President: Improve Police Welfare for effective service delivery, If CPS is so good, why did AIGs, DIGs and IGPs exempt themselves from the scheme?

The retired police personnel in the State, under the aegis of the Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria (ARPON), who alleged that the scheme has been fraught with challenges since its inception, said that retired officers who fall in the category of the pension platform should be exempted like those who rose to the position of Generals in the force.

The protesters, however, sought establishment of a Police Pension Board with sole responsibility of overseeing the pension matters of the police as applicable in other security agencies.

Addressing members of the ARPON during the peaceful protest in Ilorin, Chairman of the group, Yakubu Jimoh, a retired Chief Superintendent of Police, pleaded with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to urgently come to their aid.

Jimoh, who said that the retired police officers should be removed from the contributory pension scheme, added that the force pension board should be established to manage the pension of the officers.

Jimoh stated that the report of the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Services on the bill for the establishment of Police Pension Board, which public hearing held November last year be released, notwithstanding that it was conducted eight months ago.

He also called on the federal government and National Assembly to fast track the legislative process on the disbursement of the N758billion, a pension shortfall owed security agencies, saying that the retired officers were told that payment was scheduled for June 2025 but wondered the delay experienced in the disbursement.

He appealed to the National Assembly to expedite action on the payment so as to assuage the suffering of the retirees and improve the retirement welfare of both serving and retired officers.

In the letter of agitation made available, Jimoh said, “Our exit being advocated should be outright removal from the scheme. Since the inception of contributory pension scheme, it has been one problem or the other. It is unfortunate that officials of the National Pension Commission/Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), who came to deliver lecture on the workings of the scheme, do not relive their bitter experiences in the hands of their host to their masters when they get back.

“We have always resented this contributory pension scheme, which gratuity and monthly pension is just a pittance and not a living wage. We are all witnesses to the lamentations of the retired police officers on social media. Imagine Superintendent of Police being paid N2.4million as his gratuity after 35 years of meritorious service and a paltry N30,000 as monthly pension.

“This, to say the least, is responsible for corruption in the Police Force, as the officers want to make it by all means. From Commissioners of Police down the ladder is lamentations of woe. Only the Police “Generalismos”, retired Inspector Generals, Deputy Inspector Generals and Assistant Inspector Generals recently exited the scheme while this agitation was on. They are getting fat pension benefits as the case may be.

“Back to memory lane, when the Military was to exit this scheme, their senior officers did not discriminate. They pulled out all the other ranks. In the case of Police, IGP Egbetokun was asking a Police lecture parade of Senior Officers and men in Kwara State that, where are you exiting to? Because of the regimentality of the job, the audience kept mute and watched in “admiration” of the Speaker/IGP.

“The answer from retirees since then has been that we want to exit to where the Police Generals had gone to. Those agencies that exited the scheme such as the Military, DSS take more pension compared to their counterparts, of the same rank in the Police.”

The Legal Adviser of ARPON, Adekunle Iwalaiye, said the retired officers deserve to be paid living pension away from the crumbs they receive monthly.

Iwalaiye, a retired Superintendent of Police, tasked the government to act on the demand of the retirees, considering the meritorious services they rendered to the country for 35 years.

“We are here to get across to the press so that our voices can be heard in respect of the pains retired Police Officers have been passing through under the current pension scheme. What we are saying is that retired Police Officers are human beings too, that we deserve living wage, that we are Nigerians with flesh and blood flowing in our veins.

“The set of people you are seeing here are Nigerians that have used 35 years of our youthful age to serve this country in various capacities. Some of us carried bullet wounds and various degrees of wounds suffered in the cause of our service to this nation.

“And that for God being so merciful enough for us to retire well, we deserve a living pension and our demand is just simple. The government should just do the needful by pulling us out of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), the same way it has been done to some other security agencies in the country.

“It is disheartening for senior citizens to earn peanuts as monthly pension and even money that cannot get you anything as gratuity. Just imagine somebody, who retired after 35 years being given less than N3million; the money cannot even buy a tricycle assuming you want to go into a tricycle business.

“Somebody who retires, on monthly basis, is being given less than N50,000 as pension that cannot even buy a bag of rice. Our wives and children are suffering. Most of our members are dying prematurely of all forms of illness. We can’t take care of our children too.

“We have chosen not to be violent. We are not violent people. We have served this country diligently and we cannot be part of what will lead to breakdown of law and order,” he said.

End.