Retired police officers on the contributory pension scheme have called on the National Assembly to ignore agitations of the National Pensions Commission (PenCom) and the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp) and go ahead with the bill that seeks to amend the Pensions Reforms Act 2014 to exclude the Nigeria Police and other paramilitary organisations from the scheme.
The group’s National Secretary, ASP Sylvanus Basadeimbo (rtd) told journalists in Jos, “Our problem as retired policemen is that our pay is limited compared to those who retired before us. Pension is for life but PenCom has a time limit for pensioners. At a certain time they stop payment, insisting one’s contribution is exhausted. Retirees cannot pay their children’s school fees due to the meagre monthly pension. We hope that the National Assembly will speed up the process to save many lives.”
He said unless the welfare of retirees was improved, the fight against corruption could not be won as police officers in the service would feel the need to acquire more wealth while in service so they would not suffer when they retired.
“We want to join the old system. We are happy that the National Assembly has taken this bold step,” he said.
