Laleye Dipo in Minna
A proposal has been made to President Muhammadu Buhari for the approval of the payment of 300 percent gross annual salaries as gratuities to retired police officers.
This is even as some police retirees have asked for their total exit from the pension schemes like their counterparts in the Nigerian Army, Directorate of State Security Service (DSS) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
The Managing Director of the Nigeria Police Force Pension Limited, Alhaji Abdulkareem Gizawa, stated during an interactive session with about 2,000 retired policemen from the North Central geo-political zone in Minna yesterday that President Buhari has, however, approved the payment of the 2.5 percent increment in the pension for all pensioners.
Gizawa added that the president had also approved the payment of death benefits to the relations of police personnel that died between 2014 and this year, but did not say when the affected people would start receiving the bank alerts to confirm the payment.
The managing director said the interactive session was being held with police retirees across the country because “most of the retirees are complaining about the little pension they are being paid.”
Also, while addressing the retirees, Deputy Inspector-General of Police(DIG) in charge of Finance and Administration, Force Headquarters, Sanusi Lemu, acknowledged that police salary is very poor, adding that the only time “we had a remarkable improvement in our salaries and welfare packages was during the administration of late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua.”
Despite the promises, many of the retirees who spoke at the forum held at the Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi International Conference Centre in the Niger State capital, asked for their total exclusion from any form of pension just like their counterparts in other security agencies, especially when they (police) are in charge of the internal security of the country.
Speaking on behalf of the retirees, DSP Joseph Akubo (rtd) lamented that majority of them, after serving the country meritoriously for between 32 and 35 years, go home with less than N35, 000 monthly because they are under the Contributory Pension Scheme, whereas some of their colleagues under other schemes receive close to N200,000, adding that those in other security agencies continue to draw 100 percent of their salaries on retirement.
“A DSP in the police force goes home with N1.8million as gratuity whereas those in other security agencies receive N10million on retirement. This is totally unfair,” Akubo lamented, before asking for their total exclusion from any pension scheme.
While responding to the remarks, DIG Lemu said the police have no power to review the law, adding that only the National Assembly can effect such change.
Meanwhile, the Coordinator of the programme, Chukwuma Ohaka, had chased journalists away from the venue of the event, saying: “We did not ask any journalist to cover this event, it is an in-house affair.”
