BY JUDE OSSAI / ENUGU
Retired Police Officers under the Contributory Pension Scheme, Enugu State Chapter, have appealed to members of the National Assembly to speedy the passage of the bill seeking to exempting them from PenCom scheme.
To this end, the ex-police officers have threatened that if after two weeks, the authorities fail to remove them from the scheme, they would move with their families, wives and children to occupy Police Force Headquarters and National Assembly complex, Abuja.
Addressing a press conference in Enugu on Thursday, the Chairman of the police retirees in the state, Christopher Odugu (Rtd ASP), appealed to the Federal Government to establish Police Pension Board with a view to exempting them from the present scheme.
Odugu stated the continued stay of Police in PenCom had brought untold hardship to the retirees from the police force.
“We want the National Assembly to amend section 5(1) (a) of the 2004 Pension Act now 2014 review Act.
“Our lump-sum and monthly pension are so meager compared to other security agencies like the retired Armed Forces DSS and the National Intelligence Agency.
“We have been abandoned and neglected in pains to suffer after 35 years of service to the country”, he said.
It could be recalled the national body of the Retired Police Officers had recently summited a memorandum seeking the amendment of the Pension Act 2004 and the amended Pension Reform Act 2014 and their implementations alleging that they are dented with fraud and irregularities and is a violation of Section 173 (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) that provides that: “any benefit to which a person is entitled in accordance with or under such law as is referred in subsection (1) of this section shall not be with-held or altered to his disadvantage except to such extent as is permissible under the law including the code of conduct”.
According to them, “the defined benefit scheme that was in operation during our enlistment was altered by the Pension Act 2004 and Pension Reform Act 2014 to the detriment and disadvantage of serving and retired Police Officers.
The memorandum revealed that the registered CPS contributors is 9.72million. This figure include Nigeria Police Force Retirees which is 44,604 between 2007 and 2020.
Parts of it read: “The current total manpower of Nigeria Police Force is 370,000 which is far less than a million as at August 2021 (Wikipedia August 2021), it could even be less than 370,000 because there was a gap in recruitment for about 10 years before the year 2021 and there were retirement usually in trickles and fatalities by both natural causes and violent attacks on particularly serving members.
“NPF retirees under CPS in the past 18 years (2004-2022) will not exceed 44,604. Even if the total strength of the NPF being 370,000 is added to NPF retirees under the CPS from 2004 to date, Pencom will still retain well over 9million contributors in its fold. So, what is this roll back all about? Exiting the police from the CPS will not affect the scheme in any way”.
Prior to the Enugu press briefing, aggrieved retired police officers held a prayer session where they called on God for spiritual intervention.
Comment here