Retired Police officers protest in Abuja, block presidential villa gate over pension scheme

Scores of retired officers of the Nigeria Police Force and their families on Monday in Abuja held a protest against their continued inclusion in the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The protesters, under the aegis of the Police Retired Officers Forum of Nigeria (PROF), described the scheme as “fraudulent, illegal, inhumane, and obnoxious,” calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to assent to the Police Exit Bill.

Vanguard news reported that the protesters also blocked a gate of the Presidential Villa during the protest.

According to the retirees, the bill—passed by the National Assembly on December 4, 2025, and transmitted to the Presidency on March 16, 2026—would remove police personnel from the CPS if signed into law.

Leading the protest, the National Coordinator of PROF, CSP Raphael Irowainu (retd.), said the demonstration was aimed at urging the president to act on the legislation.

“Our major aim here is to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sign our bill—the bill exiting the police from the Contributory Pension Scheme—passed by the National Assembly on 4th December 2025 and transmitted to him on 16th March, 2026, into law, nothing more than that,” he said.

Irowainu lamented that while other security agencies have been removed from the scheme, police personnel remain included.

“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 added.

The retirees argued that the CPS has adversely affected their welfare, describing it as a “slavery and untimely death-inducing pension scheme.”

Monday’s protest is not the first by retired police officers over the issue. It would be recalled that in July 2025, the retirees had staged a similar demonstration at the National Assembly, demanding their removal from the scheme.

Some of the demonstrators also protested at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, decrying what they described as poor pension conditions under the CPS.