Retired police officers in Kwara State have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Assembly and the Pension Commission to come to their rescue over alleged discrimination and underpayment of their gratuities by the police pension administrator.

Speaking with newsmen in Ilorin on Tuesday, the police retirees, led by Mathew Agada and Jacob Aleriwhon, alleged that the arbitrary deduction in their gratuities by the pension administrator had led to a growing poverty level and untimely deaths among their members.

The affected retirees between 2017 till date, called on concerned authorities to ensure that 50 per cent of their contributory pension was paid to them as against alleged indiscriminate payment of 25, 27 or 30 per cent by the police pension administrator.

The people lamented that some retired police officers with a contributory pension of N9 million, for example, were paid N1.3 million as against N4.5 million that should be the 50 per cent of the sum.

They also called for even payment of their gratuities in line with 50 per cent of their contributory pension, describing such payment of either N800,000 or N1.5 million for someone with N6 million pension as regrettable.

Retired police officers, who included those in inspectorate rank, lamented that most of them had no houses of their own, saying that what they are paid could not help them manage their lives after retirement.

“The benefit withdrawal consent form/template had within the last 15 years of its operation especially to Police retirees, had been arbitrary, discriminatory, bureaucratic and selectively manipulated by pension commission and police pension department.

“We beg the Federal Government to either repeal the contributory pensions policy of the police or direct the police pension administrator to pay 50 per cent of our pension to all of us that retired from 2017 till date without delay.

“We want President Buhari to consider the repeal of the police contributory pension policy as it looked into that of the DSS and the Army, more so as police are the central force and mother of all the forces in the land. Payment of our accrued rights is full of discrepancy and ambiguity as retirees of the same date of employment, same rank, same promotion, and same exit date were paid different sums. This situation has left many of us to live in abject poverty as police retirees now receive a monthly pension of N15,000 or N20,000.

“Many people have died due to the treatment being meted on us. We now ask if it is a crime to serve our country for 35 years. They should rather pay us off,” Agada said.