RETIREES, under the association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria (RPON), Niger State chapter, have taken to the street to protest neglect by the Federal Government.
The retirees, seen with various placards, lamented being reduced to slaves after giving the best years in service to the nation.
They demanded the immediate removal of the police force from the Contributory Pension Scheme of the National Pension Commission (PenCom).
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Some of the placards displayed stated that PenCom had not declared any dividend for the past five years.
Other placards read ‘Police Pensioners Reduced to Beggers’, NPF Pension No AGM, ‘After Serving the Nation for 35years Why Paying Ourselves from What we Contributed’.
According to the Punch, the retirees protested from the officers’ mess area to the State Police Command headquarters to deliver their letter of protest to the Commissioner of Police Monday Bala Kuryas for onward delivery to the Inspector General of Police Usman Baba Alkali.
While delivering their letter, the protest leader, Madu Dambuwa, said many of them have died, scores injured, and their children out of school after serving the nation for 35 years.
“Some of us got as low as N1.2 million at the end of our service. The IGP should listen to us, and if they refused, more of this kind of protest would come out,” he said.
“Our salary as police retirees is too poor compared to other security forces. The majority of us earn like N38 000 monthly while some other security forces get over N100 000 monthly as pension. Police gave birth to all other security forces, and we should be treated equally.”
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Shehu Abdullahi, who received the protesters on behalf of the CP, informed them that a bill to address some of the things they raised was already before the Senate concerning their plight.
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