Retired soldiers to protest unpaid pensions Jan. 15 Retired personnel of the Nigerian military forces, under the umbrella of the Ex-Service Men Welfare Association, have given notice of their readiness to embark on a peaceful protest on January 15, the day set aside for the Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration, over the non-payment of their pension arrears by the government. The leadership of the association said in a statement on Tuesday that the peaceful protest was intended to call the attention of the government and the public to the plight of the military pensioners. The statement, signed by Col. P.A. Zubair (retd.), Col. H.I. Ikoghode (retd.), MWOs U. Samuel and A. Agbas, said that the military pensioners had been made to go through hardship because of the failure of the government to fulfil promises made to them in relation to the issue of the prompt payment of their pension allowances. The ex-service men argued that it was wrong on the part of the government to celebrate the fallen heroes while their living counterparts were left to starve. “The members of the Ex-Service Men Welfare Association hereby wish to request for your kind support to bring to the notice of the general public of the plight of the Armed Forces pensioners. “The military pensioners have continued to face untold hardship as a result of the government’s refusal to pay our outstanding pension arrears since July 2010 to date. “However, we have been subjected to all forms of deceit from the government and its various organs responsible for the payment of the pension arrears in the annual budget that has not seen the light of the day… “It is the height of hypocrisy to vote huge sums of money for the fallen heroes every year while the living ones are forgotten and dying of hunger. “The living heroes are ready to stage a nationwide protest to show the world our plight. No going back on our 53.37 per cent pension arrears based on the correct data. “We have legally earned the money and refusing to pay us or tampering with it is totally unacceptable,” the statement read. The ex-servicemen had threatened to disrupt the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebrations scheduled for Thursday over 30 months unpaid pension arrears, from the 2010 pension increment on December 10, 2014. The ex-servicemen were angry that the Ministry of Finance opted, without consultations, to implement 33 per cent increment for them while civilians and their counterparts had received the allowances. They added that “even the so-called 53.37 per cent that was illegally being reduced to 33 per cent was based on wrong data,” this could be corrected with the implementation of the 2007 pension review among others. SOURCE: PUNCH, 14TH, JANUARY, 2015
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 05:23:48 +0000
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