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Police pensioners raise alarm over unpaid entitlements

&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Retired<&sol;strong><&sol;em><strong><em> officers of the Nigeria Police Force&comma; under the auspices of Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria&comma; ARPON&comma; under contribution pension scheme&comma; gathered on March 17 in the Ikeja Government Reservation Area&comma; to lament their woes over unpaid entitlements&period;<&sol;em> OpenLife<em> reporter&comma; <&sol;em>Joke Ashade<em>&comma; who covered the meeting&comma; reports<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I joined the Nigeria Police Force at the age of 18&period; I spent 35 years and retired at age 53&period; I spent all my youthful and creative energies serving the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria&comma; protecting life and property&period; That I have to be involved in this struggle to get my pension paid will not be encouraging to the younger generation that would like to serve this country&period; There was even a very pathetic case of a widow who was sent packing out of the Barracks after the death of her husband&period; Is that how to reward a woman who supported her husband to render patriotic service of protecting lives&quest; In my own case&comma; I have nothing to show for my dedication to service&period; I am being owed pension by government and nothing is being done about it&period; How do I manage to put food on the table&comma; pay children tuition fees including clothes and health&quest;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;03&sol;Pension-5-1024x768&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-2627"&sol;><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The above statement&NewLine;was the lamentation of Rosemary Oboton Bong&comma; a retired Superintendent of&NewLine;Police&comma; SP&comma; at the March&NewLine;17 &nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;meeting retired officers of the Nigeria Police&NewLine;Force&comma; under the auspices of Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria&comma;&NewLine;ARPON&comma; which &nbsp&semi;held at 13&comma; Michael Ogun Street&comma;&NewLine;off Ghana Embassy&comma; GRA&comma; Ikeja&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Oboton Bong’s&NewLine;lamentation was re-echoed by other police retirees in attendance&period; &nbsp&semi;According to the retired officers&comma; the meeting was held to&NewLine;remind the government about their unpaid entitlements as a police officer&NewLine;retirees&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;03&sol;pension-7-1024x768&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-2628"&sol;><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Vice Chairman&NewLine;of the association&comma; DSP Anyamuka Iginatius stated that things are getting out&NewLine;of hands for the retirees&period; Therefore&comma; government&comma; as a matter of urgency&comma;&NewLine;should give serious attention to the plight of the retirees&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It was not that&NewLine;our salary&comma; while in service&comma; was big&period; What we hoped for was this pension that&NewLine;is not being paid” he lamented&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The&NewLine;pensioners&comma; some of who are being owed as far back as 2015&comma; could not&NewLine;understand why military retirees could be victims of unpaid entitlements when&NewLine;the President of Nigeria is a retiree himself&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The Public Relations Officer&comma; PRO&comma; of the association&comma; retired Deputy Superintendent of Police&comma; DSP Patrick Eteng&comma; disclosed that the reason the association resorted to public outcry is as a result of failed attempts to draw government attention to their plight saying that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;All the series of efforts in writing and calls to the authorities concerned failed to yield results&period; We are suffering&period; We have bills to pay&period; We therefore use this public opportunity&comma; once again&comma; to remind government of their obligations to us who served the government of Nigeria meritoriously&comma;” he stated&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;03&sol;pension-8-1024x768&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-2629"&sol;><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The association&NewLine;Provost&comma; retired DSP Lucky Onoiribhobo stated that while in service&comma; &nbsp&semi;some monies&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;were &nbsp&semi;always deducted on monthly&NewLine;basis from their salaries&comma; &nbsp&semi;claiming that&NewLine;as of that time&comma; they were told the monies were &nbsp&semi;meant for housing&comma; healthcare&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Now&comma; we are&NewLine;retired&period; Where is the money&quest; This is one matter the government cannot ignore&period;&NewLine;We need urgent attention&period; We are calling on the National Assembly to help us&NewLine;look into this&comma;” he pleaded&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;03&sol;pension-9-1024x768&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-2630"&sol;><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While&NewLine;responding to the request of the retired officers for legal action against the&NewLine;government&comma; Femi Falana Chamber maintained that while &nbsp&semi;it is unfair of government to delay pension of&NewLine;retirees&comma; a probe panel should be set up to investigate the reason for delayed&NewLine;pension&comma; adding that 35 years of sweat should not be left unrewarded&NewLine;financially&period; &nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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