Retired Correctional Service Staff Want Law To Include Them In NHIS

By Ayodele Oni

Retired officers of the Nigeria Correctional Service, (NCS), in search of healthy life after retirement, have pleaded for their inclusion in the National Health Insurance Scheme, (NHIS).

They have appealed to the national assembly and President Mohamadu Buhari to facilitate their inclusion through a law.

In a statement in Akure on Tuesday, under the auspices of the  Retired Correctional Service Officers, they expressed their readiness to opt out of contributory pensions scheme, under which they are currently enlisted.

The Coordinator, Mr Abidakun Olusanya, explained that as retired officers under the NHIS, they would have access to unhindered health care at no cost.

They specifically want the leadership of the national legislature  to set in motion machinery towards putting in place a law that will remove them from the contributory pension scheme and revisit the cancellation of the NHIS to ameliorate their health challenges.

“After 35 years of meritorious services, we were subjected to untold hardship, financial kwashiorkor and perennial psychological torture under the Contributory Pensions Scheme at present.

“We express our desire to pull out of the scheme on the ground of marginalization, discrimination and unequal treatment on the payment of our pensions and other retirement benefits.

“For example, we observe that our counterparts who are exempted from the Contributory Pension Scheme receive fatter monthly take home, while some of us as a Chief Superintendent of Correction Service receive as low as N43,000 as monthly pension.

“While our counterparts in the military and DSS receive over N200,000 as monthly take home all because they have pulled out of the contributory pensions scheme.

“Returning us to the old scheme (defined benefit scheme) will reduce our suffering and hardship which we are subjected to by the reason of the said Contributory Pensions Scheme.”

According to them, retired police officers are already working relentlessly for their exemption from the contributory pensions scheme, and that of Correctional Service retirees that are under the same Criminal Justice Administration, “our case should not be exceptional.

“We were also deprived the opportunity of accessing the National Health Insurance Scheme immediately after retirement and this is having negative impact on our health which our pension cannot meet.

“Some of us are now dying of age related sickness, hunger, hypertension, stroke, deprivation, unjustifiable inhuman and untimely death.”