Retired Police officers protest at presidential villa, demand exit from pension scheme

Retired personnel of the Nigeria Police Force, alongside their families, on Monday staged a protest at one of the gates of the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Operating under the Police Retired Officers Forum of Nigeria, the demonstrators blocked access as they demanded the removal of the police from the Contributory Pension Scheme.

The retirees described the scheme as “fraudulent, illegal, inhumane and obnoxious,” insisting that it has failed to meet their welfare needs.

Many of the protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as “End CPS” and “If military, DSS were removed from PENCOM, why not police?” Others chanted, “Police dey work, PenCom dey chop,” to express their frustration over the system managed by the National Pension Commission.

They said the protest was aimed at urging President Bola Tinubu to assent to the Police Exit Bill passed by the National Assembly on December 4, 2025, and transmitted to the Presidency on March 16, 2026.

According to them, the bill, if signed into law, would exempt police personnel from what they called a “slavery and untimely death-inducing pension scheme.”

Speaking in a video of the protest posted by Channels Television, a retired ASP, Nurudeen Dahiru, said, “We are not begging anybody. We have come to fight for our rights. We have suffered.

“We are not here to fight anybody. We are just here to demand for our rights. We have served for 35 years.

“According to the Constitution of the country, when you serve your country for 35 years, you should go home and rest. But see us suffering now. We are not able to take care of our children.

“We have no food to eat. We are dying. Silent killing. So this contributory pension scheme is a killer disease. 35 years is not easy. We are not here to fight anybody.”

Another retired officer said, “We don’t have anything to train them. As I retired 20 years ago, how much are they paying me?

“It is 24,000 that I am paying you because I retired with the inspector. So they have to sign our bill and give us all our money.

“So that somebody can use it for something. You can buy a house. And then now we don’t have a house.

“How can an ASP, a DSP, a CP retire and they are paying him how much? No, no, no. Enough is enough. It is a do or die. Even if some people are killed today, others are coming.”

Speaking to reporters, the National Coordinator of the Police Retired Officers Forum of Nigeria, CSP Raphael Irowainu (retd), who led the protest, said the group was at the Villa to press for the President’s assent to the bill exiting the police from the CPS.

“Our major aim here is to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sign our bill—the bill exiting the police from the Contributory Pension Scheme passed by the National Assembly on 4th December 2025 and transmitted to him on 16th March 2026, into law, nothing more than that.

“The soldiers have been exited, the SSS has been exited, the Air Force has been exited, the Navy has been exited, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has been exited. The police, who are the father of them all, are trapped in this obnoxious Contributory Pension Scheme,” he said.

The protest is the latest in a series of demonstrations by retired police officers over the CPS.

In July last year, retirees protested at the National Assembly, also demanding removal from the scheme. Some later besieged the Force Headquarters in Abuja.

At the time, the then Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, said the welfare of retired officers was being addressed but noted that exiting the CPS could not be implemented immediately. He also urged against misinformation, saying the Force could not abandon its personnel.

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