The Nigerian police retirees on Thursday, appealed to the National Assembly to quickly pass the bill seeking to remove them from contributory pension scheme which they said has impoverished them and subjected them to serious hardship.
The Enugu branch of the retirees, who spoke to journalists during a prayer rally to seek God's intervention, said the bill before the National Assembly would create a Police Pensions Board which would handle the retirement issues of the police.
According to them, their counterparts in the army and Department of State Services have since exited contributory pension scheme and their pension matters are being smoothly handled by boards created for that purpose.
Addressing journalists, the State Chairman of police retirees, Christopher Odugu, decried hardship his members were passing through under contributory pension scheme.
Odugu stated that police retirees receive pittance in pensions ranging N30,000 and N46,000 as monthly pension, which according to him, could not even take care of their medications let alone feeding their families.
The chairman wondered why the bill before the National Assembly to set up a Police Pension Board, which had already passed 1st and 2nd reading should be taking time to pass into law.
He therefore appealed to the members of the 9th Assembly to do everything within their power to ensure the bill is passed into law before they wind up, saying they would have saved many families from agony.
Flanked by other state executives and members, Odugu noted that their continued stay in Police in Pension scheme had brought untold hardship to the retirees from the police force.
"We want the Federal Government to amend the 2014 Pension Act so as to save us from dying after serving the country for 35 years.
"Our lump-sum and monthly pension are so meager compared to other security agencies like the retired Armed Forces DSS and the National Intelligence Agency.
"Ironically, the Nigerian Army, the DSS and NIA are the children of the Nigeria Police. They were created from the police and perform less functions compared to the role of the police for the security of Nigeria.
"It is funny that the police have been abandoned and neglected in pains to suffer after 35 years of service to the country.
"Members of the Nigeria Police Force being the frontline security agency are involved in sustaining the internal security of this country. They also involve in the performance of other military duties as provided in section 4(e) and section 8 of the Police Act 2020.
"They are exposed to danger daily than other security agencies that are even exempted, and as such deserve better treatment during and after service", the retirees said.