The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has said that the bill to exempt the police from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), will not favour the Police Force.
He disclosed this while addressing some police officers, that if the police exit the CPS, they will go back to square one.
“Yes it is true that a bill has been passed by the National Assembly for the police to exit the CPS and that bill is awaiting presidential assent, but has anyone of you seen the details of the content of that bill? You need to go and look at the bill and see where you are exiting to.
“Everybody is shouting ‘let us go, let us go’. You must know where you are going before you start shouting, ‘I want to go.
“When I became IG, I set up a committee to look into the pension issue and we discovered that the bill awaiting the assent of the President does not favour us. If we exit the present Contributory Pension Scheme, we are going back to square one, where we were before the introduction of the scheme. Our pension will be in the hands of politicians and they will be the one to address our pension. Our pension will be subject to budgetary allocation every year and when the government does not have money, you will not be paid
“You remember those days when retirees will go and line up and wait for months and they will not get anything, that is the place you want us to go back to.
“So we have to be careful, not to go from the frying pan to the fire. I am the Inspector General of police, you must trust me that I care about your welfare and I will fight this pension issue to make sure that police officers who retire get the best of pension in retirement.
“Let me disclose to you what I am working on, I am working on a pension scheme where every police officer will retire with his salary. That is the best and that is what I want for the police. Not the exit you are all shouting about. Where are you going, where are you exciting to, you don’t know where you people are going and you are saying let us go. Can you tell me where you are going before you say let us go. So let us be very careful with this emotion we are attaching to the exiting the scheme.”
Also speaking during the public hearing conducted by the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service, Mr. Ivor Takor, Director, Centre for Pension Rights Advocacy (CPRA) stated that the CPS remains the most secure and sustainable system for ensuring police officers’ pensions and safeguarding them from old age poverty.
Takor made four recommendations which includes enhanced gratuity payments, government-exclusive contributions, retention of full salaries for senior officers and unified support for the CPS.
