Protest: Retired Policemen Demand Exit From Contributory Pension Scheme

Members of the Kwara State chapter of the Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria (ARPON), yesterday held a peaceful demonstration in Ilorin, the state capital.

They demanded that they be removed from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The protesters alleged that the scheme had been fraught with challenges since its inception, adding that, “retired officers who fall in the category of the pension platform should be excused like those who rose to the position of Army Generals in the force.

In its stead, the protesters sought the establishment of a Police Pension Board with sole responsibility for overseeing the pension matters of the police as applicable to other security agencies.

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

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The chairman of the state chapter of ARPON, Yakubu Jimoh, a retired chief superintendent of police, addressed his members during the peaceful demonstration at the press centre of the state council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ilorin, and pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to urgently come to their aid.

He said retired police officers should be removed from the contributory pension scheme and that a force pension board should be established to manage their pensions.

Jimoh stated that the report of the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Services on the Bill for the establishment of the Police Pension Board, which held a public hearing in November 2024, should 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 N758bn, a pension shortfall owed to security agencies. He said that the retired officers were told that payment was scheduled for June 2025, but wondered about the delay in the disbursement.

He appealed to the National Assembly to expedite action on the payment 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 the contributory pension scheme, it has been one problem or another. It is unfortunate that officials of the National Pension Commission/Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), who came to deliver a lecture on the workings of the scheme, do not reveal their bitter experiences in the hands of their host to their masters when they get back.

“We have always resented this contributory pension scheme, in which gratuity and monthly pension are just a pittance, not a living wage. We are all witnesses to the lamentations of the retired police officers on social media. Imagine a 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 are 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.”