Retired police personnel and their families, under the aegis of the Police Retired Officers Forum of Nigeria, on Monday staged a protest at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, blocking one of its gates.
The retirees said the demonstration was against the continued inclusion of the Nigeria Police Force in the Contributory Pension Scheme.
They described the scheme as “fraudulent, illegal, inhumane, and obnoxious.”
The protesters urged President Bola Tinubu to assent to the Police Exit Bill passed by the National Assembly on December 4, 2025.
According to them, the bill was transmitted to the Presidency on March 16, 2026.
They argued that when signed into law, the legislation would exempt police personnel from what they termed a “slavery and untimely death-inducing pension scheme.”
The protest was led by the National Coordinator of the forum, Raphael Irowainu. Speaking to journalists, Irowainu said the core objective was to press for immediate presidential assent.
“Our major aim here is to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sign our bill, the bill exempting the police from the Contributory Pension Scheme… into law, nothing more than that,” he said.
Irowainu lamented that while other security agencies had been removed from the scheme, police personnel remained affected.
“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 has been exited. The police, who are the father of them all, are trapped in this obnoxious Contributory Pension Scheme,” he said.