Ex-police Officers Protest Over Pension Scheme

Retired police officers under the Contributory Pension Scheme on Monday marched from the National Assembly and shut the main gate of the Force Headquarters in Abuja for hours, demanding that the police be removed from the scheme, which they say has trapped them in poverty.

The elderly ex-officers refused repeated pleas to disperse until they secured a meeting with the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun.

Facing the protesters, Egbetokun expressed sympathy and insisted he was not opposed to the police exiting the CPS if that would solve the problem, but stressed the decision lay beyond any one Inspector-General.

He said he had been engaging top government officials — including the National Security Adviser — on ways to improve police retirees’ welfare, and cautioned the crowd against being used by outside interests.

The Abuja showdown capped a wave of coordinated agitations as retirees in Edo and Kwara states also protested, branding the CPS “a killer scheme.”

In Oyo, however, Take-It-Back activists staged a solidarity demonstration over poor police welfare, even as local retirees stayed away.

Organisers across the states recalled that the push to quit the CPS dates back to 2014, yet promised reforms remained unfulfilled.