Retired Police Officers Want FG To Pay Them Entitlements 10 Years After
FeaturedNigeria September 24, 2015 Dianabasi Effiong
Arase
From: Diana Okon-Effiong, Calabar
Some Police officers who retired about 10 years ago in Cross River have appealed to the Federal Government to cause the Nigeria Police Force to pay their pension and gratuities forthwith.The retired officers, who also said that they were now living in penury, made the call in an interview with journalists in Calabar.
They said that although they religiously participated in what they called the usual verification exercise more than eight times since retirement they had yet to receive any money from the authorities. One of them. Mr Udoh Akpan (69), a frail-looking former Deputy Superintendent of Police, said his children education had suffered because of lack of money.
Akpan, who said he last served at the Cross River State command in Calabar where he retired in 2006, explained that he attended some verification exercise about 10 times without getting his entitlements.According to Akpan, who currently squats in a pitiable apartment in Calabar with his five children, there were assurances that he would be paid after the last verification exercise in January 2015
He said: “I retired since 2006 and I have always hoped that I will be paid my gratuity and start receiving my pension but I have not received any. After the last verification exercise in January 2015, I was told that my money will be paid in a few months but it has not come. I have done the verification exercise more than 10 times. At a time they said I was disturbing them. As I speak, my children are out of school. My eldest daughter who is a graduate cannot collect her certificate because I did not pay her school fees. I live with my children in one funny apartment because I do not have anywhere to go to.
“I put in my best to serve the force for 35 years and this is what I get. Most of our colleagues are dead without receiving their pension. Is this what we get for serving our father’s land? I sometimes regret joining the police and working until retirement. I also feel bad and odd that perhaps I did something wrong to deserve this kind of treatment from the federal government. This is discouraging.”
Akpan’s colleagues, Bassey Ejom and James Iyamba, who also retired as DSP and Inspector respectively in 2006, also had some sad stories about payment of their entitlements after meritorious service to Nigeria. Ejom said he last served in Aboh, Delta State before retiring in 2006 and had yet to receive his gratuity after attending several verification exercise.
Ejom, who retired as an Inspector, was, however, lucky to get succour from a relative who bought a bus for him under a hire purchase agreement. He now deploy the vehicle for commercial purposes.
“I served the police force and retired voluntarily after 30 years. I have seven children and four of them are in the university. I have not received any pension or gratuity since I retired in 2006,” he said.
Ejom said that Iyamba, who was not as lucky, had a life-threatening stroke in 2013, was paralysed before he died on Aug. 25, 2015.
“Iyamba last served in the Asokoro Division of the Nigeria Police, Abuja and had stroke in 2013 which he managed until the leg got paralysed. He even visited Abuja three times to do verification before he died. He was optimistic that he would get his gratuity before he died but unfortunately he didn’t. There is also another case of Sgt. Ajah Ekpang with F/No 88750, who retired in 2006. He has no pension, no gratuity. He said there are officers who retired in 2004 yet to be attended to,” Ejom said.
Contacted over the unpaid retired officers, Mrs Bassey Inyang, the Chairman, Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria in Cross River, who retired as a Deputy Commissioner of Police, confirmed that some retirees have not been paid.
“By virtue of Pensions Act 2004 which took effect in 2006, the Contributory Pension Scheme was introduced.Those that retired from 2006 to 2008 had this problem of payment because they belong to the old scheme called Pension Transition Administration Department. I am aware that the Federal Government has sent teams to verify the PTAD people and they do it from time to time. But some of the old people have not been paid because of human errors and it is a handful of them.
“After the last verification, you know, we have a new government in place and money has to be released for them to be paid. About two people have come to me and I have forwarded that information to our headquarters,” the official said.
Dianabasi Effiong
