Atiku Abubakar, the country’s ex-vice president, has accused President Bola Tinubu of leaving retired police officers to suffer from poverty, disease, and shame, while also claiming that some active officers are using their pension funds to support their families.
Following the approval of a salary rise for members of the Armed Forces, Atiku demanded an urgent review of salaries for serving police officers and a prompt response to the Police Exit Bill.
A retired police officer informed Atiku that he receives a monthly pension of N29,000, according to a statement released by his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu.
Additionally, he related the story of a former ACP who, after serving his nation for many years, supposedly sought out low-level employment.
According to Atiku, a group of retired police personnel and their families demonstrated outside the National Assembly, demanding better working conditions and pension benefits.
At the entrance of the National Assembly, alongside their families, retired police men stood. A few of the kids were holding signs asking for a law that would allow their parents to stay alive. Nigeria has been calling for decades, and now the men and women who have heeded that call are waiting outside the country’s legislature for Nigeria to do the same. He remarked that Bola Tinubu ought to be embarrassed that this has reached this point.
A retired ASPO official’s monthly pension was revealed to be N29,000, according to the ex-VP.
“What would you do with 29,000 Nigerian naira?” he enquired. He reported that over 120 retired cops have passed away in his group throughout the past three years. Please, Bola, take a seat among these officers. Stare them down. Atiku threatened to tell them how they should live.
He went on to describe how a female former ACS allegedly begged at Abuja’s Central Mosque after she had to hunt for work to subsist.
A former assistant commissioner of police has been on my mind nonstop. She claimed she would clean for a living after years of serving Nigeria and set out to find job. She was later discovered begging at Abuja’s Central Mosque by one of my media managers. He proceeded to approach me directly, and we took action,” he stated.
While Atiku expressed his relief that the retired officer had received support, he maintained that an effective pension system was necessary and that private assistance could not substitute it.
Just one woman at that very moment could benefit from our intervention. The retirement she worked so hard for would not be possible with it, he claimed.
It was only when he found that the retired officer was in trouble that she got help, he wondered.
Ola, she worked her way up to the position of assistant commissioner. Despite her service to this nation, she was discovered pleading for assistance. Who needed a fortuitous meeting to take action? Nigeria owes her nothing; no former officer should have to be found in difficulty before that happens, Atiku added.