Some retired police officers under the contributory pension scheme protested at the National Assembly on Tuesday over alleged several months of unpaid pensions, with a call on Bola Tinubu to remove them from the scheme.
The protesters decried the extreme challenges they endure, saying that the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) has failed to pay their entitlements for several months, causing them and their families untold hardship.
Christopher Effiong, chairman of the retirees, said many of their members have developed terminal illnesses and heart attacks as a result of the frustration associated with the scheme.
The retirees said many of their colleagues have lost their lives due to the prevailing economic hardship.
The aggrieved retired police officers also wrote a Save Our Soul (SOS) letter to the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio.
The letter reads in part: “For over a decade now, Nigeria Police Force (NPF) Retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), have painstakingly, lawfully and peacefully been agitating to be given the rightful placement in the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS), the premises under which most of us enlisted in the NPF which guarantees pension and gratuity to an officer upon retirement.
“We believe that our peaceful and legal approach to this agitation would not be taken for granted by you.
“We must also appreciate both the members of the Upper and the Lower Chambers who have also painstakingly taken the matter through several sessions of legislative actions spanning investigative and public hearings.
“And the passage of the Police Exit Bill from CPS (Contributory Pension Scheme) and Police Pension Board Bill in our favour – privately initiated bills by Senator Elisha Abbo and Hon. Francis Waive of the Senate and House of Representative respectively, in the 9th NASS.
“Sir, permit us to intimate our dear Senate President that the Bill for an Act to establish the Nigeria Police Pension Board to handle Pension matters for personnel of the Force and for connected purposes was passed by the 9th Assembly Senate on Tuesday 5th June, 2023.
READ ALSO: Terrorists Kill 40, Burn Houses in Plateau Community Attack
“Whereas the sister bill to exempt the Police Force from the application of the Contributory Pensions Scheme under the CPS 2014 and for related matters, for which public hearing was conducted since 22/02/22 by the House Committee on Pensions of the 9th Assembly, came up in the floor of the 10th Assembly on 23rd November, 2023 for harmonization process but is still pending till date.
“The speedy harmonisation and transmission of these bills to the President for assent become absolutely necessary due to very obvious reasons.
“A few of such reasons are the rate at which Retired Police Officers die because of hardship caused by the present economic situation in Nigeria,” the letter concludes
Follow the Parallel Facts channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaCQSAoHgZWiDjR3Kn2E
