By Samuel Ibezim
Tuesday, October 8, retired Nigerian Police officers, peacefully stormed the street of Owerri to protest over nonpayment of pension, gratuity and other retirement benefits, after months of waiting to be paid their entitlements. They have been retired from active service after working for 35 years and are calling on people of Nigeria to come to their aids.
The protesters who numbered over 150, processed along Concord Hotel Road with placards bearing different inscriptions on their ordeals and stopped at Nigeria Television Authority, NTA station where they addressed journalists.
Speaking to newsmen, Prince Nwakwe Amanze who retired as Superintendent of Police and also the chairman of Police Pensioners, Imo State chapter, said that they embarked on the protest because of high level of cheating against them by their leaders. He said that in 2004, they were forcefully enrolled to pension contributory scheme even when some of them were due for retirement prior to the year, and it was discounted instead of being calculated.
“From that period till now, they have been deducting our money, we are now paying our selves the gratuity and pension in Nigeria. In any part of the world, it never happened, in all other sister agencies, forces, talk of the army, talk of the SSS, it never happened. If you see what we are taking as our gratuity and pension when we retire, you will shed tears.” Amanze stated.
Continuing: “We have suffered a lot of humiliation, intimidation. This so called Police Pencon is a cheat, it’s a fraud. There was a time we protested for our disengagement from that system but the so called interested people declined and forced us to agree that there is advantage in it. Today, we are seeing hell. We are calling on the right thinking human beings, the positive minds and even the Nigeria President whom i know is a right thinking man and he is a listening man to come to our aids. And of course he is a retiree from the army, he is supposed to know what we are passing through.”
Similarly, Ezetennadi Benjamin Nkemakolam who retired as Deputy Superintendent of Police in 2017, said that Nigeria has not risen to its full responsibilities. He reiterated that the pension scheme is a fraud because they have not been treated well but left to die in abject poverty and hunger.
Nkemakolam had this to say: “As a Deputy Superintendent of Police retired, i was paid 2.4 Million Naira for a whole 35 years. Assuming i were to sell pure water for 35 solid years under somebody, won’t the money given to me be more than 20 million Naira? This is what we have gone through in the hands of the Police force.
In his words, Livinus Emeka accused the Police of remaining docile saying that their sister agencies don’t suffer such. He informed that ranking in police has been bastardised as there are instances where an inspector earned more than a Deputy Superintendent of Police.
“Now you can look at the faces of people that have gathered here, what you will see is nothing but resentment, anger and disillusionment which tells you the volume of what we are talking about. It has not been easy. Why we are here is to let people know that we are not happy,” he stated.
Also, Remigius Osuji who retired in 2017 as Assistant Superintendent of Police, blamed their plights on their superiors whom he said have been tormenting them both during and after service. He said that he was paid 1.6 million naira instead of 6.4 million naira that he is entitled to from the 7.5% money been deducted monthly from his salary. He accused the retired police chiefs of spearheading the cheating and unfair treatment against them.
Trumpeta gathered that the protest is a nationwide issue and they have contacted Femi Falana, a human right activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, to be their counsel. Falana had written to the federal government and asked them to pay them within 90 days or face the legal battle.
However, only the retired male officers were present as their female counterparts were avoidably absent for no reason.
