By TONY EDIKE
ENUGU—THE retired Nigeria civil war affected police officers from the South East and South-South, yesterday, claimed that they were the real owners of the loot recently recovered from the police pension's probe by the senate committee on pensions.
The affected veterans have, therefore, asked that the recovered money be used to settle their pensions and gratuity which they claimed were stolen from them by the pension managers who refused to pay them since they were granted amnesty by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on May 29, 2000.
In a Save our Soul letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, one of the 68 affected police pensioners from Enugu State, Mr. Raphael Mberede Okpara, stated that they hinge their claim on the premise that the police joined Pencom in 2004, noting also that greater insecurity challenge awaited Nigeria as he claimed that policemen were no longer entitled to pension.
The danger, he alerted, was that the police who given guns to protect the citizenry and were not paid pensions, would turn around to use it against the society.
Okpara narrated that when the over 113 war affected retired police officers from Enugu State came for their payment on November 12, 2007, the pay officers from police pension fund turned them back with excuse that the cheque leaves they came with were not the right ones.
"That was how the money of about 2000 retired war affected police officers was stolen," he alleged.
Part of the petition reads: "We did not hear from police pensions until 31 months later. By the month of July 2011, we were invited for capture of bio-data. We know that the invitation was based on order to pay us.
"The aim of this letter is to remind you that retired war affected police officers are more entitled to the money recovered from the pensions fund thieves than any other group.
"We are crying out to you as our President to save us from those who swore that we will never have access to our money.
"Our colleagues in the army received their gratuity and pension arrears last October and now receive their pensions. Please let the office of the presidency or office of the secretary to the government of the federation be electronically informed when our money is put into our accounts. Our E-payment numbers and account numbers were in bio data forms we filled. We are really scared of the staff of police pension office."
Vanguard Nigeria