The Chief Executive Officer of the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PENOP), Oguche Agudah, said the exemption of the Nigeria Police Force from the CPS would make the financial burden for budgetary allocations unbearable for the country.
This was part of his submissions at the public hearing recently at the House of Representatives on A Bill to Exclude the Nigerian Police Force from the Contributory Pension Scheme.
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Agudah said at the time of the reform, it was estimated that the federal government had a pension liability of over NGN 2 trillion.
He added that, “It will take another N1.8 – N2 trillion to return the Nigerian Police Force to the Defined Benefits Scheme.
“This was a time when retirees had to depend on a defined benefit system; where the federal government paid monthly pensions to retirees directly from its coffers,”
Speaking further, Agudah noted that, “Past experiences have proved that this system puts a lot of burden on the federal government, making it unsustainable. The sustainability of moving the police back to the pay–as–you–go Defined Benefit Scheme under their proposal is near impossible, given the federal government’s struggling finances at the moment.”
He recommended that from the rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) upwards, their pensions should be treated under the category of political appointees who retire with full benefits as stated in the PRA 2014 as their appointments are political in nature.
