Police retirees stage protest at National Assembly, want exit from Contributory Pension Scheme

Police retirees have called for the exit of the police from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) following their inability to access their benefits.

A spokesperson for the retirees, Mr Christopher Effiong, said this during a protest at the National Assembly in Abuja on Tuesday.

Effiong, a retired Superintendent of Police, said the protest was aimed at drawing the attention of the National Assembly to their plights.

The spokesperson also, the Chairman of Cross River Chapter of Police Retirees Forum said their request to exit from the scheme had long been submitted to the National Assembly.

“We agitated that we should be exempted from contributing pension scheme like our other counterparts from other security agencies like armed forces and other intelligence communities.

“This scheme has sent a lots of our retirees to the grave.

“We have a bill here, bill to exit contributing pension scheme, that bill had been here for over two years.

“It has passed first and, second reading, we came here for public hearing, but till today, nothing is happening,noting is done.

“If it is a conspiracy by the Nigerian government to kill us, then let us die here,we are dying, we cannot feed our family,” he said.

Speaking, Sen. Yinusa Akintunde, the Vice-chairman,Senate Committee on Police Affairs, who sympathised with the retirees personnel, said that the national assembly was making contacts with the police authorities toward finding a solution.

“We thanked you sincerely, what you are doing this morning is a legal means of expressing your feeling.

” You are trying to let the nation know the situation of the police retirees and there is no crime in what you are doing.

“You are exercising your right,let me inform you, the truth is that, as of this morning, we met twice, the committee of National Assembly and the Committee of the IG of Police, and the bill you are talking about is 9th assembly bill.

“It is is no more in existence as of today, because it was never assented to, but some arrangements are on to resolve the problem.

“You are fathers, brothers, mothers, we cannot allow you to suffer, we are going to meet with some of you now to find the way out,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the retirees carried placards with various inscriptions such as “CPS defrauding police retirees, “retired police officers are dying in penury under the contributory pension scheme” and CPS is a death sentence against police retirees”