Police retirees reject contributory pension scheme

The police retirees on the contributory pension scheme are demanding an exemption from the scheme just like their counterparts in military forces and the Department of Security Services (DSS).
 
They are also demanding to be included in debarment allowances, which their counterparts in the other security forces enjoy.
 
The retirees led by their leader and legal adviser, Ofem Nbang, carried their protests to the National Assembly on Wednesday with placards carrying inscriptions narrating their ordeals.
 
They came armed with written petitions addressed to the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.
 
Speaking on behalf of the retirees, Mbang said they had served the Nigeria Police Force for 35 years and that the scheme was introduced during their service.
 
He said: “When they introduced the contributory pension scheme in 2004, we were under the old pension but the law was retrogressive.” He said laws are not supposed to be made retrogressively.
 
“This is against the provision of Section 173(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) because it alters an existing pension scheme (benefit scheme) to the disadvantage of prospective retirees, who had been in service long before the enactment of the Pension Reform Act 2004.”
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