We lost 300 Police retirees to non-passage of pension bill — ARPO

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Due to the delay in passing the Police Pension Bill by the National Assembly, the Association of Retired Police Officers (ARPO), Kaduna state chapter, has raised the alarm over the increasing rate of death among its members.

The association’s chairman, CSP Mannir Lawal Zaria, has said over 300 retirees have died as a result of poverty and sickness in the past year.

Speaking in a press conference in Kaduna on Thursday, Zaria said that the Federal Government and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) should come to the rescue of the police retirees by ensuring the passage of the pension bill to halt the present attrition rate among the pensioners.

“The retirees who have died now number over 300, from 2023 to date, in Kaduna. We have lost so many retired policemen in the state. People are dying now because of poverty and disease,” he lamented.

According to him, this is the only country where police retirees are left alone to suffer after leaving service and die. In other countries, retirees are placed on reserve during emergencies.”

He said that the members of the association are ready to come out and assist the government in fighting terrorism and banditry.

However, the leader of ARPO explained that “in a situation where the retirees are not well catered for, we cannot enter the bush to fight insurgency with an empty stomach when the contributory pension stipend can hardly sustain us under the present harsh economic situation.”

“The present situation we, the retirees, are facing today will not augur well for those in service to watch and believe that when they eventually leave service and retire from service, they will be treated similarly.”

Meanwhile, it would be recalled that when the association officials from Kaduna met the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, recently, he assured them of the Senate’s readiness to pass the Police Pension Bill and transmit it to President Bola Tinubu for assent.

Akpabio gave the pledge while addressing the Association of Retired Police Officers Kaduna State Chapter, which conducted a peaceful protest at the National Assembly as the group pleaded with the Senate and the House of Representatives to pass the pension bill.

The members of the Association said that such will give recognition to it like the military and other security agencies.

The Senate President, Akpabio, who was represented by the Chairman of the House Committee on Police Affairs, Senator AbdulHamid Malamadori, while addressing the group, assured them that once the Senate was through with the budget defence, they would ensure that they passed the bill for the third reading.

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