Nigeria Police retirees, under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), have rejected the recently announced “Enhancement of Monthly Pension Payment” by the Director General (DG) of PenCom, Aisha Dahir-Umar.

The DG had explained that “pension enhancement is a means of adjusting the periodic income of retirees against the erosion of their pension by inflation” as well as “solving the problem of low pensions” cutting across all shades of retirees under the CPS.

But the retirees, in a petition made available to newsmen, yesterday, in Calabar said the new policy is a reinforcement of PenCom’s “strategic policies of accelerated untimely deaths and neo-colonial, slavish economic strangulation of NPF Retirees under the CPS in a new garb “beautifully” christened “Enhancement of Monthly Pension payment.”

The statement was signed by the Chairman, Police Retirees under CPS, CRS chapter, Mr. Chris Effiong; Chairman, FCT Chapter, Mr. Abayomi Akeremale; Legal Adviser, Elder Ofem O. Mbang, Chairman, Delta State chapter, Mr Emmanuel Kwekaogwu; General Secretary, Dr. Augustine Peter and 21 others on behalf of themselves and all NPF retirees and sent to the National Assembly,

They argued: “The so-called pension enhancement payment has been deceitfully selective as not up to ten NPF retirees under the CPS have received the ear-aching peanut. From a cursory look at these paltry sums called pension enhancement, the question is whether these exceptional peanuts are sufficient to address the effect of inflation on the pensions of NPF retirees under the CPS as well as solve the problem of about 20 years low pension for the retirees under reference.”

The retirees dismissed “the so-called pension enhancement for a monthly N400.00; N500.00; N900.00; N1,000.00, N2,000.00, N3,000.00 and N4,000.00 respectively as their enhanced pensions which are likely to be representative of what the DG PenCom, Aisha Dahir-Umar will push into the pension accounts of NPF retirees under the CPS” as worthless. (The Guardian)