'After 35 Years In Service, We Earn N20,000 Monthly'
Plateau State Pensioners Distance Self From 'Illegal Group'
DOZENS of the nation's retired police officers, including Commissioners of Police, Deputy Commissioners of Police and Assistant Commissioners of Police, among others, converged in Owerri at the weekend for another round of protest and meeting.
They want the Federal Government, the National Assembly, the Minister of Police Affairs, the Acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar and the Police Service Commission to intervene and save them from pains inflicted by an alleged unjust payment scheme of the National Pension Commission (PenCom).
Under the aegis of Elders Club of Nigeria, led by President General, Moses Ajeka (retired Superintendent of Police); Secretary General, Dr. Sam Aforole (retired Superintendent of Police); Secretary, Kwara State branch, Evangelist Mathew Umah (retired Deputy Superintendent of Police) and Treasurer, Kwara State, Andrew Owaozi (retired Chief Superintendent of Police), they demanded immediate upward review of their monthly pension payment by PenCom.
The officers insisted that having served the force for 35 years, they deserve more that the gross underpayment they are being made to put up with.
Ajeka lamented that some of his colleagues still receive about N28,000 monthly, despite several appeals for them to be paid according to what they received when they were in service.
"Why should someone who was receiving about N120,000, when he was serving, receive N28,000 now," he said.
"We are calling on appropriate authorities to consider our plight. The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, should do everything within his powers to rescue us from the hands of PENCOM.
"As things are, we don't know where we are. We are crying because of the treatment meted to us. The Pension Act states that there is gratuity after retirement, after which you receive salaries. We cannot withstand it. In Nigeria today, what can someone who has a family do with N28,000. We are calling on the President, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the IGP, the Chairman of the Police Service Commission and the Minister of Police Affairs to come to our rescue."
The General Secretary and Secretary of the Kwara State branch of the body, Aforole and Umah, described the situation as utter injustice.
"We have been grossly cheated," said Umah. "Our rights and gratuities are not commensurate with our ranks at retirement. Some of us were paid N120,000 when we served, but now we are paid N20,000, N28,000 monthly as pension, which is nothing to write home about. We were told that after 10 to 15 years we would be paid off. Why should we resort to begging? We are urging the government to look seriously into our case with an urgent review of our pension so that we can afford school fees for our children."
Aforole said: "Our plight is pitiable. We are no longer small boys. We are no longer young, having put in 35 years in active service. I don't think PenCom managers are treating us fairly. When our matters are discussed, we should be informed. My gratuity was calculated at around N10 million, but they paid me half the sum. How my remaining N5 million is being managed, I don't know. They give me a paltry N30,000 as pension every month. Tell me, what I should do with that when I am no longer productive. It is unfair! I am calling on the National Assembly and the IGP to look into this matter. If this is not addressed, the same fate may someday befall the IGP."
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Plateau State chapter, has distanced itself from what it says is an illegal group parading itself as officials of NUP at the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) branch.
The NUP said the group has been circulating sinister and unfounded petitions capable of bringing its name into disrepute.
Addressing ITF pensioners yesterday at ITF area office in Jos, State Chairman of NUP, Comrade Danladi Sunday Jimoh, said petition writing by members of the group would do incalculable damage to the image of the union, warning anonymous petition writers to submit themselves to the constituted authority of the caretaker committee of the ITF branch of NUP.
"We notice with dismay," he said, "that some people who are no more NUP officials of ITF branch are using NUP letterhead papers to write evil petitions, which the state council considers as anti-union activities. The state council hereby dissociates itself from such acts. Such petitions are not with the consent of the state council and the ITF congress.
"Let me inform you that the Nigeria Union of Pensioners operates under a constitution. Therefore, it is expected that all your conduct must be in line with the constitution, and any aggrieved members must channel their complaints through constituted officials from the branch to the next level and to the highest body which is our national secretariat."
The Guardian