The Direct General of PENCOM, Ms. Omolola Oloworaran speaking at the meeting with the Police Retirees in Calabar on Tuesday.
By Anietie Akpan
The National Pension Commission (PENCOM) has once again declared that massive reforms will soon take place in Police pension even as Nigeria Police Retirees have called for a total exit from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
The Direct General of PENCOM, Ms. Omolola Oloworaran who reiterated this position in a meeting with a large number of police retirees from the South South zone on Tuesday at the Police Officers’ Mess in Calabar did not give details of the proposed reform.
She however said, “I am committed to police pension reform. I will make proposal to government. We are looking at gratuity of 100 percent to retired policemen and monthly pension of 75 to 100 percent”.
On the agitation by the police retirees to exit the CPS under PENCOM, she said, “what we are trying to do is see how the current pension scheme can work best for the police officers and I am not going to give details…We can do Contributory Defined Pension Scheme under CPS”
On the call for the revocation of the police pensions license, she said, “Like I said, there will be reforms which I have been talking about. I haven’t given details yet because I need to get buy-in on approval. There will certainly be reforms and when those reforms come to light, then we can talk more about that. But on the police pension matter, just know that reform is coming. Big reform is coming”.
The DG promised to take all their matters to the presidency but asked: “Everybody wants to leave (the CPS)?” “Yes”, echoed the police retirees. “Even when we do reform you still want to leave? You want to be like your colleagues in the military? “Yes”, they echoed again.
She explained that the Police pension is going to be reformed “to serve police officers better than ever before and something I want to assure us is that, you know, we have a president that is bold. It’s not every day that you see one president sign off on almost a trillion naira to pay ordinary Nigerians. It has never happened before.
“This is the first time it is happening and he was bold enough to say yes, we have owed people this, we need to pay. Some of those things have been outstanding for over 20 years. Have we asked ourselves why nobody else did it until this president came? We should ask ourselves and I believe that this president has then done the barest minimum in this regard to say give him a chance.
“I am very credible and you would realize that soon. So I am saying give us another chance under the president, I am very sure that we will work something out but let’s wait till the end.
“We know that the pensions the retired police officers are getting is too small. I totally agree with you. Everybody understands that and we know that you are suffering, your families are suffering because you can’t even take care of your family and I relate that to health care. If I give you health care and you cannot take care of your family, what’s the essence of the health care? So I totally get this you said that if you are not getting paid, please forget the health care.The money for health care, first of all, give it to me. Let me go and take care of my family. I can relate. So I totally agree with that”.
She assured the retirees that, “anything that we do will not be undone by anybody else because it will be done the way it should be done. If it has to go through the senate, it will go through the senate. It will be done”.
Fielding questions from newsmen, Oluworara however said that the demand by the retirees may not be in the way they want it saying , “I was telling someone just now that you know sometimes you have a child he wants one, two, three, four, five, six things but the father knows what is best and I’m not saying that’s the case but at the end of the day you get what is right for the child and the child is happy at the end but what I can say is that the police is fighting for a righteous cause and the Commission under my leadership will try and see how we can ensure that the cause you are fighting for, is fulfilled”.
On whether the Commission is scared that at the end of the day the police leaving may trigger other members to leave, she stated, “I am not scared that police leaving will trigger other members to leave. I am not scared at all.
“What I’m trying to do is make sure that the police and indeed every Nigerian under the CPS gets what is due to them and the police like I said, they are fighting for better entitlements and you guys were there, some of the entitlements are just so poor. People receiving N20,000 in pensions is just too small”.
On timeline for the reform, the DG said, “frankly I don’t call the shots anywhere but if you don’t give timelines then really nothing gets done so I am imposing a timeline for myself even though I know I don’t really have the power but I am imposing the timeline of three months on myself. One thing I want us to know is this. I only want what is best for Nigerians. So if we cannot enhance their benefits and give them what they want or what they are due under the current scheme then why should they stay on? But what I believe is that we should be able to give them what they are due and we should be able to resolve their issues”.
Speaking on behalf of the police retirees, the National Legal Officer of Police Retirees: DSP (Barr) Ofem Mbang (Rtd), without mincing words, said “we want total exit. We have been deceived enough. We want police pension board. Eating police pension money is blood money. Many of us have died and many others bed ridden because of what we are passing through”
With the large number of retirees in attendance chanting, “give us our rights”, Ofem said, “we want permanent structures and not palliative. Our concern here is pension and gratuity.
A cross section of Police Retirees at the meeting.
When a snake has bitten you, when you see a worm, you will be afraid. DG PENCOM, the former DG PENCOM, not you. He has shown us pepper.
“DG PENCOM as you are representing the president I will tell you everything so that you take to the president. There is no amount of improvement that will come that will satisfy us. We don’t want palliative because palliative comes and goes. We want permanent structure which is exit from the CPS and the establishment of the Police Pension Board”.
He said, “a military man , a WO1 which is an equivalent of an Inspector in the police goes home with about N200, 000 but and Inspector goes home with about N18,000 to N19,000.
“And one important thing I want to mention here, is that I have never seen all over the world where security agency pensions are managed by a private company limited by share. I am a lawyer, I know what I’m saying. MPF pension Ltd they are all eating our money. Because board of directors and chairmen are eating out money feeding fat. We want a police pension board, that their salaries and interest will be paid by the federal government.
“In whichever way we are paid, we want a Police Pension Board to manage our pension. And those people will be managing our pension and gratuity and we will be getting dividends. We know what it means to open a company and be a director and shareholder. They eat dividends from our sweat. We want Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) to be managed by the Police Pension Board
“In MPF pensions Ltd, nobody in MPF pensions earned less than N500,000 but, we are earning N35,000. This is fraud. As a DSP, three stars. I go home with N35,000 to N40,000. It is a shame to the federal government. A Commissioner of Police goes home with N70,000 but a Major General in the Army which is the equivalent to the Commissioner of Police goes home with about N800,00.
In as much as the MPF pension exists, let the president revoke their license through the instrument of your office (PENCOM) which gives license. And that is when police will have peace.
“I want to draw the attention of DG PENCOM. You may be coming with good intention. But our IG, and former Igs…will stand ground to use our money in MPF pension to block our payment and exit from pension scheme. Even if the president wants to pay us all that he has promised it should not be through MPF Pension”.
He said, “if the president could cause the senate to extend the tenure of the IG within two days, he can also cause the senate to pass our bill within two days. When others were exempted from CPS there was no public hearing so why public hearing for the case of police?
“What is not good is not good. The story of all these things, we don’t doubt you. But with Jagaban our president we may believe him a little, because he’s a different man. Those opposing us are those who are eating our money and that is blood money. It’s not only those who do rituals that are eating blood money”.
On his part, the National Coordinator of the CPS Superintendent of Police (Rtd), Christopher Effiong, said, “after 35 years in service or 60 years of age, when we came out, we discovered that Contributory Pension Scheme is a ruse and we need to be given fair treatment. And of course, in the first place, we have discovered that the Constitutional Provision of Pension under Section 173, Sub 3 of the Constitution, clearly states that after 35 years of service or 60 years of age, as you retire home, they pay you 300 percent of your last annual gross pay as gratuity or 80 percent of your last salary as your monthly pension. But when we came out, it’s not so.
“They gave us about one quarter of what they call the reserve in Retirement Savings Scheme. So, it does not serve any purpose. That is why we decided that let us go to the Defined Benefit Scheme or Establish Police Pension Board for us, so that we go there and have our entitlement as those who served this nation better”.
Effiong who is also the Chairman of the Cross River State Chapter for Retired Police Officers under the CPS, said the provision of the Pension Reform Act does not in any way suggest that pension and gratuity should not be paid but it was discovered that “they only gave us what they call lump sum and it’s not stable. So, it’s a breach of fundamental human right as contained in the Constitution”.
On the reforms, he said “for me as a person, for the past seven years, I’ve been agitating. I think this has been the first time we have had the privilege of the government intervening to listen to us. For me, I would like to give a trial. Left for me. Because when we are talking about unionism, it’s not all about win-lose approach.
“At times, you give here, you give here, you negotiate, you make a trial. Even in the National Union Programme , that’s how I see it. But I discovered that majority, because of pains, what they have passed through and so on, they have subsumed to the idea that let us exit.
“So, if it is exit, it is majority, we exit. But for me, as an individual, as Christopher Effiong, not in my capacity as National President, I could have said, well, since this is the first time we are having this opportunity, let us see if these people are going to be true to their time. Particularly, as we are informed that Mr. President has shown concern on our plight”.
