Police retirees demand Tinubu’s assent to pension exemption bill

Retired police officers and their wives have renewed calls for President Bola Tinubu to assent to a bill seeking to exempt the Nigeria Police Force from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), citing poor retirement benefits and rising medical costs.

The protesters, under the Police Retired Officers Forum of Nigeria, staged a demonstration at the National Assembly in Abuja on Wednesday, accusing the Federal Government of delaying action on the bill.

The protest was part of an indefinite demonstration that resumed on September 29, 2026, following what the group described as the failure of previous engagements with government officials to resolve the dispute.

The forum’s leader, CSP Raphael Irowainu (retd.), said the National Assembly passed the bill on December 4, 2025, and transmitted it to the President on March 16, 2026.

He accused the National Pension Commission (PenCom) and police management of opposing the proposed exemption, contributing to the delay in the President’s assent.

Irowainu said the retirees would no longer accept promises of improved welfare, insisting that their demand was for the police to be removed from the scheme.

He said retired Assistant Superintendents of Police received lump-sum payments of between N2.1m and N2.5m, alongside monthly pensions of about N25,000.

According to him, retired superintendents received between N2.5m and N2.8m in lump sums, with monthly pensions ranging from N35,000 to N40,000. Retired commissioners of police, he added, received between N7m and N9m, with monthly pensions of N90,000 to N100,000.

He described the payments as inadequate to cover basic needs, particularly healthcare, and alleged that more than 20 members of the forum had died in the preceding six months because they could not afford medical treatment.

The forum’s leader cited the military, Department of State Services, National Intelligence Agency and National Assembly as institutions exempted from the contributory pension system introduced in 2004.

The latest demonstration followed a protest at PenCom’s headquarters in Abuja on Monday, where the retirees reportedly spent about seven hours demanding that the commission stop opposing the bill.

Irowainu said PenCom’s secretary and legal adviser, Mohammed Sani, who represented Director-General Omolola Oloworaran, appealed for calm and assured the protesters that efforts were being made to improve their retirement benefits.

However, the retirees insisted that improved payments under the existing scheme would not address their concerns.

Irowainu said the group had previously protested at the Presidential Villa and engaged the Inspector-General of Police, as well as the Ministries of Justice and Police Affairs, without securing a satisfactory resolution.

He vowed that the protest would continue until Tinubu assented to the bill or the government took concrete steps to address their demands.