Some retired military personnel brought activities at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja to a halt on Thursday, erecting canopies and littering the premises with their mats and plastic chairs as they protested over unpaid entitlements.
They accused the Federal Government of withholding a 20% to 28% salary increment owed to them from January to November 2024.
The retirees are demanding several entitlements, including owed palliative payments from October 2023 to November 2024, a pension increment of N32,000, a bulk payment of the Security Debarment Allowance, and a refund of deductions made from the pensions of medically boarded soldiers.
Retired Col. Innocent Azubuike, leader of the retired military personnel, expressed concerns over the struggles of military pensioners, highlighting how the non-payment of their entitlements has caused immense suffering.
Azubuike revealed that despite earlier promises to settle their entitlements in November, the retirees were later told that the payments could not be made due to insufficient funds.
He said: “We were told approval has been secured for the payment of our entitlements. The only thing remaining is cash backing.
“We were told to exercise patience and assured that our long-unpaid entitlements would be settled in November. November is gone, and there is no indication of when this will happen because it’s a matter with the FMoF and not the Ministry of Defence.”
Thursday’s protest is not an isolated incident, as retired military personnel had previously staged a similar demonstration in September 2022.
Persecondnews recalls that some retired military personnel, comprising members of the Retired Members of Nigerian Armed Forces and the Coalition of Concerned Military Veterans, took to the streets on Monday, September 26, 2022, protesting at the Ministry of Defence in Abuja over unpaid allowances, including the Security Debarment Allowance.
The protesters pitched a tent and blocked access to the Ministry of Defence, located at Ship House on Olusegun Obasanjo Way in the country’s capital city.
They have made similar protests in January 2022 at the ministries of finance, defence, and the National Assembly, demanding the payment of their entitlements, an issue that remains unresolved.
On October 13, 2023, Minister of Defence Mohammed Badaru Abubakar announced that the Federal Government had begun disbursing the Security Debarment Allowance (SDA) to armed forces members who retired from service starting November 9, 2017.
The minister made the disclosure at a press briefing to herald activities lined up for the 2024 Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebrations at the National Defence College in Abuja.
Abubakar added that due to persistent protests and agitations by military veterans who were initially left out of the allowance, the federal government made the decision to extend the benefit to all veterans who retired or were discharged before November 9, 2017.
He stated that President Bola Tinubu has also approved, as the first tranche, the payments of group life assurance as benefits to personnel who died from 2011 to 2021 with a view to offsetting the backlog in due course, adding that the president has approved the inclusion of ex-servicemen, widows, and dependents of fallen heroes/heroines of the armed forces in the social intervention programmes of government.
He assured that the government will continue to equip the armed forces with combat capabilities, training, and equipment with a view to reducing to the barest minimum casualties due to operations, expressing optimism that President Tinubu will bring it to an end.
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