Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu of abandoning retired police officers to starvation, sickness and humiliation, alleging that some serving officers are additionally dipping into their pension financial savings to feed their households.
Atiku referred to as for a direct response to the Police Exit Bill and an pressing wage assessment for serving police officers, following the pay improve accepted for members of the Armed Forces.
In a press release issued by his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku mentioned a retired police officer had instructed him that he acquired a month-to-month pension of N29,000.
He additionally recounted the case of a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police who allegedly sought menial work after years of service to the nation.
Atiku mentioned retired police officers had protested on the National Assembly alongside their wives and youngsters, calling for laws to enhance their welfare.
“Retired police officers stood at the gates of the National Assembly with their wives and children. Some of those children carried placards pleading for a law that could help their parents survive. Men and women who answered Nigeria’s call for decades are now waiting outside its legislature for Nigeria to answer theirs. Bola Tinubu should be ashamed that it has come to this,” he mentioned.
The former vice chairman mentioned a retired Assistant Superintendent of Police had disclosed that his month-to-month pension was N29,000.
“‘What would you even buy with N29,000?’ he asked. He said more than 120 members of his association of retired officers have died in the last three years. Bola, sit with these officers. Look them in the eye. Tell them how you expect them to live,” Atiku mentioned.
He additionally narrated how a retired feminine Assistant Commissioner of Police allegedly sought work to survive and was later discovered begging on the Central Mosque in Abuja.
“I have not been able to stop thinking about a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police. After years of serving Nigeria, she went looking for work and said she would even clean to survive. One of my media managers later found her begging at the Central Mosque in Abuja. He came straight to me, and we intervened,” he mentioned.
Atiku mentioned he was relieved that help had been supplied to the retired officer however argued that particular person intervention couldn’t exchange a dependable pension system.
“Our intervention could help one woman in that moment. It could not give her the secure retirement she earned,” he mentioned.
He questioned why the retired officer had to be found in misery earlier than she acquired help.
“Bola, she rose to the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police. She served this country, yet she was found begging for help. Why did it take a chance encounter for anyone to act? No former officer should have to be discovered in distress before Nigeria remembers what it owes her,” Atiku mentioned.
