IGP Kayode Egbetokun
Nigeria Police Retirees (NPR) have rejected the position of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun that retirees should not exit from the controversial Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) as they said such position does not respect their rights.
The IGP was reported to have said that if the police should exit from the scheme it was not in the best interest of the force as some operators said the pulling out will hurt the economy.
But in a sharp reaction, the retirees in a statement at weekend signed by the National Coordinator of the NPR, Elder Chris Effiong (SP rtd), Secretary General , Dr. Peter Silas (DSP rtd), National Legal Adviser, Elder Ofem Mbang Esq (DSP rtd) and the Vice chairman Delta State chapter, Bright Kakada (ACP rtd) said, the position by the IGP and some operators do not “respect the rights of the Police officers calling for the exit from the contributory policy…Why does the Army, Navy and Air force pension not being affected the way they are saying police own will be affected?”
They argued that, “even if the contrary becomes the case later, we still remain at a loss to understand the inconsistency in tying the retirement benefits of Retired Police Officers under the CPS to the economy of Nigeria without recourse to the macroeconomics indices of fiscal and monetary policies. These indices make up the driving force of every country’s economy and not the retirement benefits of Police Officers under the CPS or otherwise. The NPF is not a profit-making organization involved in any business venture.
“In the language of macroeconomics, the NPF as a security organization is not oriented towards commercial production for profit making, rather we earn our incomes from the broad based economy of Nigeria. So, ours is a consummate one. Perhaps, the IGP’s inexplicable assumption is that the same economy that is sustaining the Army, DIA, NIA, DSS, NASS staff, Police Generals, a flurry of Permsecs, etc, etc will collapse if the NPF is exited”.
They said the “there is no nexus between the economy of a country and retirement benefits of Police Officers under the CPS. May we rhetorically ask if the economy will be better served to have all retired Police Officers under the CPS dead having meritoriously served their fatherland for 35 unblemished years? What we perceive to be spectacular in the IGP’s sudden twist in his focus is that he may have irresistibly, for what the eyes couldn’t see caved into the exploitative economic neo-colonial practice of the DG PenCom, Aisha Dahir-Umar.
“As financially distressed senior citizens under the CPS of the 21st century, it’s given that up to the least rank among us is older than the current IGP. We have come a long way and we don’t see the IGP as having the monopoly of wisdom and intellectual property than any one of us involved in this exit struggle to unilaterally decide on what’s not in our favour. It amounts to an aberration of any logical thinking and reasoning that a so-called pension of N14,000 and N79,000 are respectively adequate for a retired Inspector of Police and a Commissioner of Police in that lower and upper levels of CPS retirees. The IGP’s position is at variance with the current economic realities”.
In this regards, the retirees said “all the ideas with which the DG PenCom, Aisha Dahir-Umar and her cohorts were confronted at all levels to a stand-still were generated by our collectivity. Let the IGP make the sudden twist in his focus to suggest including the Police Generals in the CPS arrangement instead, otherwise his position is not acceptable.
“So, the questionable claim by the IGP regarding whether we know where we are exiting to is baseless. We knew our destination ab initio. That destination is where the retired Police Generals are at the moment and where the IGP will anchor himself effective 03/03/2024 upon retirement.
“Therefore, there’s absurdity in that publication, whether the IGP is the initiator or not as his name is mentioned. The IGP should come to the open and refute it for a more positive stand or accept that publication by Opera News and convince us on what we see as uncomfortable beyond reasonable doubt. Keeping silent will mean acceptance as what he relayed to the social media. Not minding such inconsiderate publication, there’s no going back and we are more determined now to see the end of what we started when he wasn’t the IGP”.
Recall that the Senate had since passed the bill excluding the NPR from CPS and it’s currently awaiting the assent of the president of the country.
