April 29, (THEWILL) — Retirees in Ogun State Civil Service, on Tuesday, protested against what they described as poor implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), accusing Governor Dapo Abiodun’s administration of violating the law that established the pension scheme in the state.
They equally demanded to be placed under the Defined Benefit Scheme(DBS); the State Government should shift the implementation of CPS and commence the payment of their monthly pension from January 2026; while members who have not received palliative between July 2025 and December 2025 should be paid.
The retirees, who stormed the Governor’s Office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, in their large numbers, also expressed their grievances over Additional Pension Benefits (APB) and other pension schemes introduced by the government to cushion the effect of economic hardship on the senior citizens.
The pensioners described the CPS implementation as fraud, wondering why the Head of Services, Permanent Secretaries, Principals, Principals-General, Head of teachers, among other top civil officials, were excluded from the scheme.
Speaking with newsmen while awaiting Abiodun to address members, the Chairman of the Pensioners, Omopariola Oluwole, berated the state government’s implementation of CPS from July 2, 2025, insisting that the retirees would not welcome such a scheme, especially when highly placed civil servants were omitted.
Oluwole, who said that the poor implementation of CPS and other pension schemes with the current economic situation cannot ameliorate the suffering of the public servants after retirement, urged Abiodun to stop the scheme and place the retirees under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS).
He said that the pensioners would not accept the introduction of APB in the face of economic hardship because of its implementation criteria of paying gratuity with a lesser parentage than that of DBS, noting that if the APB was introduced to mitigate the effect of hardship on the retirees.
The chairman said, “We retirees, from 2nd July 2025 and thereafter in Ogun State, reject the implementation of CPS. The government of Ogun State cannot turn around to implement CPS now by fire by force when the government, on its own part, has failed to obey the guiding principles of the law that established CPS.
“The Ogun State Government should shift the implementation of CPS forward until all the constitutional needs of the scheme are met by the state government. Some of our members who have not received palliative care between July 2025 and December 2025 should be paid.
“We should be allowed to go with the Defined Benefits Scheme, DBS, and the Ogun Government should commence the payment of our Monthly pension as from January 2026. While we await the payment of our gratuity.
“We also reject the one-time payoff of Additional Pension Benefits, APB, being proposed. It is a scheme that was planned to cause poverty and hardship, considering the current economic realities in the country.
“Under this APB arrangement, a public servant who retired on grade level 17 will be subjected to a monthly pension of ₦65,000, per month, compared to his counterparts under DBS who are receiving ₦350,000 and above as monthly pension. Some retirees on the lower cadre will be receiving a monthly pension of ₦11,000 per month. This is a serious injustice to all of us.
