- Decades after retirement, beneficiaries toil fruitlessly
Over 500 retired police officers are currently having difficulties collecting their final entitlements running into billions of Naira from Police Pension Offices across the country, our correspondent’s investigations have revealed.
A week-long monitoring of activities by our correspondent at some of the pension offices, particularly the Ikeja PPO, indicated that majority of the affected officers were in line of duty victims, whose next of kins have tried in vain to collect their meagre terminal entitlements from the police force their departed loved ones served actively while alive.
Checks by The Point revealed that the callers to the PPOs could not immediately assess their entitlements as a result of various administrative bottlenecks. Investigations also revealed that, as at the last count, no fewer than 500 police officers across the country actually fall in this category, several years after leaving service.
A competent source at the NPF Headquarters at Louis Edet House, Abuja, said, “We have had cases involving frustrated officers who collapsed and died while struggling to collect their entitlements. Some even abandoned the exercise after several fruitless travels, having been ejected from the police barracks after retirement”.
Our correspondent gathered that police authorities in Abuja had become worried by the situation, considering the fact that some of the officers died or voluntarily retired from the police over fifteen years ago.
Speaking with our correspondent on the matter, the former Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Lagos and Ogun States, respectively, Bala Abdullai Hassan, said the difficulties might have arisen as a result of ignorance on the part of the family members who may not be aware of the requirements for such an exercise.
“The office of the Inspector General of Police has always seen to it that pensions and gratuities are promptly paid to the desirable individuals. It is in line with this prompt payment that almost every state of the Federation now has a Police Pension Office,” he said.
Hassan explained that if the late officer, for instance, used a name different from what his next-of-kin has presented to the authorities, this could cause some hiccups.
“This is the more reason why authorities normally advise callers to make a request for the necessary documents from the office where such an officer last served. So, callers should make adequate preparations in terms of the papers requirements,” he said.
Also speaking on the issue, the Force Public Relations Officer, Don Awunah, said, “Where members suspect they have unclaimed benefits, the first port of call should be their former employer, which will most likely be in the best position to identify the fund to which the member belonged.”
According to him, if the employer could not help, beneficiaries should contact the fund administrator or the most senior officer for the purpose of ascertaining the year the officer last served with such department.
“Pay slips or benefit statements may point beneficiaries in the right direction. We would always like to encourage officers and men to go first to their employers and funds administrators, if they can. But we will also try and help if that doesn’t yield anything,” Awunah, a deputy commissioner of police said.
An independent source told our correspondent in Abuja that some police officers, whose entitlements got trapped in the Police Pension Office, could have married more than one wife while in service.
“When an officer enlisted into the Nigeria Police, the next of kin’s name could be different. He could have used the name of a brother or a close relation or even a mistress. Officers handling such a sensitive matter have to be very careful so that entitlements would not be paid to a wrong person,” he said.
Unofficial sources at the Police Pension Office, Ikeja, had earlier hinted that it was possible to get the entitlements of an officer within a short time if the beneficiaries were ready to grease the palm of the officers in charge of the payments.
According to the source, “arrangement could be made for you to get prompt payment; either you reduce your rank by one step or pay an agreed fee to the handlers. The gap in the rank reduction would be translated into cash. The language and its interpretation are only known to those involved“.
Further investigations revealed that one of the victims of this practice was the late Vincent Orubebe, the officer-in-charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja, before his untimely death.
Orubebe, a superintendent of police, died over twelve years ago but his entitlement was yet to be paid to his family members who always travel from the East to Lagos, in their effort to collect it.
“His next of kin, according to enquiries, was his daughter. It is not clear if he actually married more than a wife. But till date, the family he left behind are still in confusion as officials toss them up and down,” a source said.
Responding to a question about bribery scandal in the Police Pension Office, the police image maker said, “It is very strange. It is not the standard practice for retired officers or relations of the line of duty officers to pay any form of bribe before they could get what truly belongs to them. I do not think it is possible. We shall investigate,” he said.
The newly appointed Inspector- General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, after a review of several complaints, recently engaged the services of two professional audit firms to undertake the auditing of police investment companies and their subsidiaries, including the Police Pension Office.
