Atiku accuses Tinubu of abandoning retired police officers to hardship

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu of abandoning retired police officers to hunger, illness and humiliation, alleging that some serving officers are also dipping into their pension savings to feed their families.

Atiku called for an immediate response to the Police Exit Bill and an urgent salary review for serving police officers, following the pay increase approved for members of the Armed Forces.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said a retired police officer had told him that he received a monthly pension of N29,000.

He also recounted the case of a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police who allegedly sought menial work after years of service to the country.

Atiku said retired police officers had protested at the National Assembly alongside their wives and children, calling for legislation to improve their welfare.

“Retired police officers stood at the gates of the National Assembly with their wives and children. Some of those children carried placards pleading for a law that could help their parents survive. Men and women who answered Nigeria’s call for decades are now waiting outside its legislature for Nigeria to answer theirs. Bola Tinubu should be ashamed that it has come to this,” he said.

The former vice president said a retired Assistant Superintendent of Police had disclosed that his monthly pension was N29,000.

“‘What would you even buy with N29,000?’ he asked. He said more than 120 members of his association of retired officers have died in the last three years. Bola, sit with these officers. Look them in the eye. Tell them how you expect them to live,” Atiku said.

He also narrated how a retired female Assistant Commissioner of Police allegedly sought work to survive and was later found begging at the Central Mosque in Abuja.

“I have not been able to stop thinking about a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police. After years of serving Nigeria, she went looking for work and said she would even clean to survive. One of my media managers later found her begging at the Central Mosque in Abuja. He came straight to me, and we intervened,” he said.

Atiku said he was relieved that assistance had been provided to the retired officer but argued that individual intervention could not replace a reliable pension system.

“Our intervention could help one woman in that moment. It could not give her the secure retirement she earned,” he said.

He questioned why the retired officer had to be discovered in distress before she received assistance.

“Bola, she rose to the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police. She served this country, yet she was found begging for help. Why did it take a chance encounter for anyone to act? No former officer should have to be discovered in distress before Nigeria remembers what it owes her,” Atiku said.