Police retirees offer special prayers for pension bill victory, want Tinubu’s quick assent 

Hundreds of retired police officers under the aegis of the Nigerian Police Retired Officers Association stormed the Police Officers’ Mess, Kaduna, on Thursday to offer prayers to God over the accelerated passage of the bill exempting police officers from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The retirees, led by their Chairman, retired Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) Manir M. Zaria, described the passage of the bill by the two chambers of the National Assembly as a welcome development.

He said they were happy to hear that, but they’re calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sign the bill into law as quickly as possible.

“We are here to make a passionate appeal to the President to fast-track the signing of this bill because of the sufferings that we have passed through, and we are still passing through.”

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Zaria noted that he and his colleagues are optimistic that the President will sign the bill, recalling Tinubu’s positive record with police welfare as Governor of Lagos State, asserting, “I am sure the President is just waiting for the bill so that he can sign it.”

Zaria, who was emotional, explained that the scheme was imported from Chile, stating that even in Chile, the military and police were excluded. 

“Unfortunately, in Nigeria, the police and other Nigerians were forced into the system,”  adding that “while the military, DSS, and other agencies have since exited, only the police remain under it.

” This isolation,” he argued, “creates a dangerous precedent that affects both serving and retired officers.

“The fundamental benefit of exiting from the contributory pension is a return to the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS). Because this system entitles a retiree to “full gratuity based on last salary and full monthly pension. 

“The system is the best as far as pension is concerned. It was those who operated it that messed up,” he stated.