Retired police officers block presidential Villa, demand exit from pension scheme
A group of retired officers of the Nigeria Police Force, operating under the Police Retired Officers Forum of Nigeria (PROF), on Monday staged a protest at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, demanding immediate withdrawal of the police from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and urging President Bola Tinubu to sign the Police Exit Bill.
The bill, which was passed by the National Assembly in December 2025 and transmitted to the President in March 2026, seeks to formally remove the Nigeria Police Force from the CPS framework.
The demonstrators, who marched under intense heat, moved from the Three Arms Zone through roads leading to the Police Headquarters before converging at Gate 8 of the Presidential Villa.
Their movement caused a temporary disruption to vehicular traffic in the area.
Many of the protesters carried placards bearing different inscriptions, alongside the Nigerian national flag and the flag of the Nigeria Police Force, as they voiced their grievances against the pension system.
The group, led by its National Coordinator, CSP Raphael Irowainu, strongly criticised the continued inclusion of the police in the CPS, describing the arrangement as “fraudulent, illegal, inhumane, and obnoxious.”
According to them, the objective of the protest was to press home their demand for presidential assent to the bill, which they said would end what they described as a “slavery and untimely death-inducing pension scheme” affecting retired officers.
“Our major aim here is to prevail on President Bola 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,” CSP Irowainu told journalists.
He further argued that other security agencies—including the Army, Navy, Air Force, Department of State Services (DSS), and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), have already been exempted from the scheme, leaving the police as the only major security institution still under it.
“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 (NIA) has been exited.
”The police, who are the father of them all, are trapped in this obnoxious Contributory Pension Scheme,” he said.
The protest, which also involved spouses and children of some retirees, escalated as participants laid mats at the entrance of Gate 8, sang solidarity songs, and in some cases lay on the ground while insisting on access to the Villa to meet the President.
Security personnel at the Villa made attempts to disperse the crowd and restore order, but the retirees refused to leave, maintaining their demand to be directly addressed by President Tinubu.
As of the time of filing this report, no official from the Villa had engaged the protesters.
This latest demonstration adds to a series of similar actions by retired police officers. In previous years, they have staged protests at the National Assembly and the Force Headquarters in Abuja, consistently demanding exit from the CPS over welfare concerns.
During one such protest in July last year, the then Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, assured that the welfare of retired officers was under consideration but cautioned that exiting the CPS was not an immediate process.
He also urged the retirees’ representatives to avoid spreading misinformation, emphasising that the police institution remained committed to its personnel, serving and retired.
Despite such assurances, agitation over pension reforms within the police ranks continues to intensify, with retirees insisting that legislative action is the only lasting solution to their demands.
