Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun has kicked against the bill seeking to exempt the police from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
Egbetokun who spoke while addressing police officers in Abuja said exiting the scheme will not favour the police force.
He stated that if the police exit the CPS, they will go back to square one.
He said: “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 would go and line up and wait for months and they would 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”.
He disclosed that what he is rather working on is a situation where police officers upon retirement receive their final salary as monthly pension.
“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 exiting 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 exiting the scheme”, he added.
Madukwe B. Nwabuisi is an accomplished journalist renown for his fearless reporting style and extensive expertise in the field. He is an investigative journalist, who has established himself as a kamikaze reporter.
