By Sumaila Ogbaje
THE CHAIRMAN, Military Pensions Board (MPB), AVM Paul Irumheson, has confirmed the receipt of the 50 per cent balance of the pension arrears of the military retirees from the Federal Government.
Irumheson made this known while addressing protesting military veterans at the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday in Abuja.
He urged the protesters to shelve the protest, assuring them that they would start receiving the arrears any moment.
According to him, the payment was being processed at the bank.
“I assure you that any moment from now you will begin to receive your alerts,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the retirees had barricaded the entrance to the Ministry of Finance with canopies and chairs, demanding the full payment of their long-overdue entitlements.
They said that they were being owed a 20 to 28 per cent salary increment covering January to November 2024 and other outstanding benefits.
These included: palliatives for the period between October 2023 and November 2024, an additional N32,000 added to their pensions, a bulk payment of the Security Debarment Allowance and a refund of pension deductions from the salaries of medically boarded soldiers.
It would be recalled that in response to their December protests, the Federal Government paid 50 per cent of the owed entitlements and promised to settle the balance.
However, the retirees claim the government had failed to fulfil its promise, prompting the resumption of their protests on Tuesday.
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, retired Col. Innocent Azubuike, said the protest stemmed from the failure of the government to fulfil its promises to pay the balance of their arrears.
Azubuike said they were waiting for the Chairman of MPB to confirm to them that payment had been made and assurance that they would start getting their money before they end the protest.
“We said if we don’t get concrete information today, we are not going to leave this place.
“The concluding side now is that the Chairman pensions board is here to confirm they have transferred the money to him. “That means we are confident we are going to be paid. That is what has brought him and you can see us trying to laugh and brighten up because we were angry before,” he said. (NAN)
