RETIRED POLICE OFFICERS PROTEST IN KWARA, DEMAND EXIT FROM CONTRIBUTORY PENSION SCHEME
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By: Sefiu Ajape
Former police officers, under the banner of the Kwara State Chapter of the Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria, staged a peaceful protest in Ilorin on Monday, calling for their immediate removal from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
The retirees argued that the scheme has been riddled with numerous issues since its introduction, and therefore, police personnel under the CPS should be exempted—just like those who attained the rank of Generals in the force.
Instead, the protesters demanded the creation of a dedicated Police Pension Board to handle the pension affairs of police officers, similar to the arrangement in other security agencies.
The ex-Police officers who brandished 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 Is exempt themselves from the scheme?”
The Chairman of the Kwara State Chapter of the Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria (ARPON), Yakubu Jimoh—a retired Chief Superintendent of Police—appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to urgently intervene in the plight of retired police personnel.
Speaking during the peaceful protest at the Press Centre of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ilorin, Jimoh reiterated the call for the immediate removal of retired police officers from the Contributory Pension Scheme.
He also emphasized the need to establish a dedicated Police Pension Board to oversee police pension matters.
Jimoh urged the release of the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Services’ report on the Police Pension Board bill, which was subjected to a public hearing in November 2024—over eight months ago.
In addition, he called on the Federal Government and the National Assembly to hasten legislative action on the disbursement of the N758 billion pension shortfall owed to security agencies.
He noted that while payment had been projected for June 2025, there has been no update, raising concerns among retirees.
He appealed to the National Assembly to expedite the process, stressing that timely payment would alleviate the suffering of retirees and enhance the overall welfare of both serving and retired police officers.
In the letter of agitation made available to the press, 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, which provides gratuity and monthly pension, but it 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 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.
“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 the Police, IGP Egbetokun was asking a Police lecture parade of Senior Officers and men in Kwara State, Where are you expecting 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 a living wage, that we are Nigerians with flesh and blood flowing in our veins.
“The set of people you are seeing here are Nigerians who 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 a 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, either.
“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.
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