Lawyer Solicits National Assembly’s Intervention in Bill for Police Pension Board

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin-city

A Benin-city-based legal practitioner in Edo State, Olayiwola Afolabi, has appealed to the National Assembly to urgently intervene in the bill for a law seeking to establish the Police Pension Board and remove the police from the contributory pension scheme which was passed by the immediate-past National Assembly.

Afolabi, who made the appeal in a letter he personally signed and addressed to the Senate President, Goodwill Akpabio, in Abuja said after the passage of the bill into law, it was taken to then President Muhammadu Buhari for assent but it was not signed due to some reasons.              

He said most security agencies have since pulled out of the contributory pension scheme leaving only the commissioner of police down to the least officer in the police force as members of the scheme.

Against this backdrop, Afolabi told the current National Assembly that the bill, when signed into law by the president after some portions have been corrected, would put smiles on the faces of police officers “who have been enslaved by the contributory pension scheme.”                       

Additionally, he said the signing of the bill into law would reduce corruption in the Nigeria Police Force as every police officer will know that he is secured after retirement.