Assent To Nigeria Police Pension Board Bill, NPA Retirees Implore Tinubu
… Say Bill Will Liberate Over 44,000 Retirees, Officers From PENCOM Servitude
By Ogbu KOSY
Nigeria Police Retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) have called on President Bola Tinubu to, as a matter of urgency, assent to the Bill for the establishment of the Nigeria Police Pension Board, saying it would liberate those under the National Pension Commission (PENCOM)-managed scheme from servitude.
The Retirees body made the passionate plea in a release signed by its national coordinator, SP Christopher Effiong (Rtd), today, in Calabar.
The Beagle News recalled that the 9th Senate had recently passed the bill for the Establishment of a Police Pension Board, a development that has left the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) defeated in its battle for the Nigerian Police Force to continue under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
Described the Bill as a milestone achievement, the national coordinator, who was represented by the Vice Chairman, Cross River State Chapter, SP Iwara Ibiang (Rtd), also urged President Tinubu, the national assembly and members of the public to ignore the press propaganda sponsored by the PENCOM’s Director-General, Aisha Dahir-Umar and her agents who are bent on continuing police enslavement, cautioning “mischief makers and all those who have stood as clogs on the wheels of progress to ground their tools.”
“The Nigeria Police Retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme have been so enslaved, impoverished and a lot several dead, while others are facing one form of medical or psychological torture or the other, due largely to the meagre take home pension and gratuity as badly managed by the Pension Commission,” they lamented, pointing out that “the present condition of the Nigeria Police Retirees under the scheme falls short of anything good.”
Recounting the PENCOM DG’s fiasco during her appearance on the floor of the national assembly to account for the 13.6 trillion Nigeria Police Retirees investment under the scheme, SP Effiong said such is one example amongst many others characterising the mismanagement, ostentatious embezzlement and many other untoward practices bedevilling PENCOM.
The national coordinator, on behalf of the executives, stakeholders and over 44, 300 members of the Police Retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme across the nation, thanked the 9th Senate Assembly under the leadership of Sen. Ahmed Lawan, especially Sen. Ishaku Abbo, Sen. Haliru Dauda and Rev. Francis Waive for their sense of solidarity, financial and moral support leading to the successful passage of the bill.
Appreciations were also extended to the Inspector-General of Police, Alkali Baba and the Chairman, Police Service Commission, Dr. Solomon Arase for their roles; as well as Mr. Ahmed Isa (ordinary president) of the human right radio & television – Radio Brekete – in sensitising the public over the plight of the Nigeria Police Retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme through the unconscionable machinations of the Aisha Dahir-Umar-led PENCOM.
Also lending his voice, the body’s National Legal Adviser, Barr. Ofem Mbang (Rtd), condemned the unfounded claims by the PENCOM DG and her cronies as “mischievous means to achieve an end,” and counter-productive to the welfare and wellbeing of those under the scheme. He called on well-meaning and good-spirited Nigerians to support the fruition of the Police Pension Board, saying that 35 years of meritorious service to the nation should not amount to bondage afterwards.
