Policemen protesting over retirement welfare, yesterday, blocked key entrance routes leading to the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

They disrupted movement in and around the seat of power in a dramatic escalation of long-running grievances over retirement welfare.

The action forced an immediate reinforcement of security, with heavily armed soldiers from the Brigade of Guards deployed to fortify the Villa’s perimeter and maintain order.

The aggrieved officers, many of them retirees, were demanding their removal from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), which they claimed had subjected them to poor remuneration, irregular pension payments, and hardship in retirement.

Yesterday’s protest was part of a broader, coordinated agitation that hadlingered for years, with retired personnel repeatedly calling for either an exit from the CPS or the establishment of a dedicated police pension structure that reflects the peculiar risks of their service.

At the heart of the renewed protest is frustration over delays in the president’s assent to a bill passed by the National Assembly that seeks to exempt police personnel from the CPS.

The protest leaders say the continued wait has deepened discontent among retirees who insist they can no longer cope with what they describe as “unjust and exploitative” pension conditions.

Some of the demonstrators, who chanted solidarity songs and carried placards, warned that the protest could be sustained if their demands were not met, stressing that past engagements with relevant authorities had failed to yield concrete results.

The development underscores a growing welfare crisis within Nigeria’s security architecture, with potential implications for morale among serving officers, even as the Federal Government faces mounting pressure to act decisively on the contentious pension issue.

The ongoing indefinite protest, organised by the Police Retired Officers Forum of Nigeria (PROF), started around July 2025, blocking access points in the nation’s capital and earlier in April 2026 over unpaid pensions despite security pushback.

MEANWHILE, President Bola Tinubu has approved the establishment of a new campus of the Nigeria Police Academy in Erinja, Yewa South Local Government Area of Ogun State.

The President also approved a special take-off grant of N15 billion for the institution.

The approval is in line with the provisions of the Nigeria Police Academy (Establishment) Act, 2021, particularly its mandate to expand the Police Academy, currently located in Wudil, into a multi-campus institution across the country.

The intervention fund will be drawn from the 2026 allocation of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund to support priority infrastructure, academic facilities, student accommodation, and core training assets.

The decision followed a high-level consultative meeting involving the Minister of Police Affairs, the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, officials of the Federal Ministry of Education, the Inspector-General of Police, and the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission.

The Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the President, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement issued yesterday, quoted President Tinubu as saying that the expansion would enhance institutional governance, strengthen modern policing education, and bolster national security.