By Ubong Ukpong, Abuja and Dan Amasingha, Minna

Hundreds of retired police personnel in the country, yesterday staged peaceful protest at the National Assembly and Minna in Niger State over what they called poor pension administration.

In Minna, the retired police officers marched through the streets, demanding their immediate exit from the contributory pension scheme which they claim is killing them gradually.

The retired officers, who commenced their protest march from the police officers mess to the State police headquarters sang songs of solidarity and carried various placards.

They said that “they have been used and dumped by the Federal Government after 35 years of service”.

Presenting their protest letter to Commissioner of Police, Niger state, Mr. Monday Kurya, who was represented by his Deputy Shehu Abdullahi the protesters took turn to lament their plight under the contributory pension scheme.

Responding on behalf of the Commissioner of police, his representative DCP Shehu Abdullahi commended the retired officers for their peaceful conducted assuring them that their grievances will be forwarded to the office of the Inspector General of Police before weekend.

“We are happy that you are fighting this battle for us, be rest assured that your message will reach the IGP office before the weekend,” Abdullahi said.

The protest, came on the heels of the House of Representatives passage, for second reading of the Bill seeking to exempt the Nigeria Police from the Contributory Pension scheme.

At the National Assembly, the retired personnel, who came from across the country, protested at the National Assembly against the Contributory Pension Scheme, which they said since its introduction in 2004 had short-changed them.

They lamented that they had only been getting a quarter or less of what they ought to get under the scheme, which was adversely affecting their lives and families.

The hundreds of police retirees, including men and women, urged that they be removed from the scheme as done to the Armed Forces and other security agencies.

They complained that they have been abandoned as the Federal Government has shown no interest in their welfare after retirement.

The police retirees asked that something be done about it urgently bore placards with inscriptions such as “CPS is a death sentence against police retirees”, “We say no to CPS”, and “We are retired not tired” among others.

Chairman of Police Contributory Pension Scheme in Cross River State, Christopher Effiong, spoke on behalf of the retirees.

“We have done everything to exit us from the Contributory Pension Scheme. It is a menace. It is an obnoxious policy that has sent a lot of retired police officer, who have served this nation meritoriously to their early grave.

“Most of us joined this force under defined benefit scheme when there was an agreement that upon retirement, they will pay us pension and gratuity. At the end of the day, we discovered that FG introduced a policy and played us into deceit that it would be better for us.

“Today we have discovered that PENCOM is a fraud. At the end of the day instead of paying us our gratuity which is about 300 per cent, what they are giving us is peanuts called lump sum. At the end of the day they are supposed to pay us 80 percent of our last months’ salary. What they are paying us is something less than 25 percent. About one quarter of what we were paid in the service.

“A lot of ugly things are taking place. Our people are developing certain sickness that is caused by heart attack, frustration and so on. We have come to tell our children in the National Assembly most of them, we laboured to ensure they come down here to make policies that would favour us and we are happy that the existing laws of this country under the Constitution gives them enormous powers to receive our petition and listen to us. They have done that, but somewhere along the line, we discovered that past and present IGs would frustrate us.

“For instance in 2017 when our appeal nearly made it to public hearing, we discovered that the then IG had to send his legal adviser to come and tell them that police retirees are comfortable with the contributory pension scheme. We are not. He who wears the shoes, know where it pains us. So we are appealing that let them us exit the contributory pension scheme.

“They have done it before for the Nigerian Armed Forces and the SSS and others. So they have the power. That power that enables them to invite us, listen to us and set a panel, equally gives them the power to look at any law which was made in error. It can be corrected without going through protocol. They have such powers under the constitution and to make new laws.

“You can imagine that a retired police inspector is paid N25, 000 or N26, 000b naira a month. He is paid between N600, 000 and 900, at the end of 35 years as a lump sum. After 35 years, they give you N900,000. They give you N700, 000 and so on. The documents we have submitted here, if you look at it you will see we have appended the consent letters that PENCOM sent to those individual officers that served. At the end of the day, they give them peanuts. The best thing is exit us. Let us go. No matter what is associated with the defined benefit scheme, we would still enjoy it provided at the end of the day, they give us something that would sustain our lives and families,” he said.