By VINCENT UJUMADU

AWKA—SOME retired police officers in Anambra State, have staged a protest in Awka over alleged non- payment of 15 months pension arrears.

Chairman of the Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria (APRON), in the state, Chief Harold Onyeonwu, a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP, said yesterday that the Police Service Commission, PSC, had not paid them since August 2011 and wondered why their pensions should be withheld, in spite of the verifications done since July last year.

Onyeonwu claimed that no fewer than 63 police pensioners in the state had died of starvation and hunger, adding that the figure could be more as there was no comprehensive record of all those who have died in the past 15 months.

According to him, members of the families of the deceased police pensioners are tossed around whenever they went for the entitlements of their relations.

Onyeonwu  appealed to the federal government and National Assembly to intervene in the matter.

He said in view of the seriousness of the matter, the association had petitioned the Senate and House of Representatives, urging the lawmakers tso prevail on the appropriate authorities to pay them to avoid further loss of lives.

He also called for harmonization of police pensions, and lamented a situation where those who retired after 2006 were receiving pensions ten times higher than those who retired before 2006.