The Military Pensions Board (MPB) said communication gap between the relevant authorities and retired soldiers was responsible for the protest by the latter at the federal ministry of finance headquarters in Abuja yesterday.
It also said the MPB has budgetary constraints and as such unable to meet the protesters demands.
Recall that retired soldiers had yesterday besieged the headquarters of the federal ministry of finance, Abuja in protest against the non-payment of their gratuity, security debarment allowance (SDA) and other entitlements.
The aggrieved ex-servicemen, comprising men and women, demanded the immediate release of their outstanding allowances.
They displayed placards bearing such inscriptions as “We are 1st and 2nd Quarter Retirees of NA 2003”, “We are living heroes and deserve to be recognised and treated right—not celebrated as fallen heroes when we are no more,” and “We the voluntary discharged soldiers of 2024 demand full payment of our benefits, including shortfalls in gratuity, SDA, parking allowance and four months’ salary cuts.”
Reacting to the agitation, spokesman for the MPB, Squadron Leader Ahmed Mohammed, said in a statement issued on Monday night that some of the issues raised by the protesting ex-servicemen were beyond the statutory mandate of MPB.
He explained that parking allowance, for instance, is domiciled with the respective services while the MPB’s brief is basically to pay pensions and gratuities.
“The SDA is for the defence headquarters; so it is also not the MPB’s responsibility.
“Issues of salary and arrears are budgetary issues and unless they are captured in the budget, MPB cannot do anything on its own.
“The shortfall they are claiming is not the fault of the authorities because they retired when the budget for the fiscal year was already running and the new minimum wage was not captured in the budget.
“So there was no way they would have been paid when there was no running budget for the new minimum wage.
“But those who retired after them were paid up to date because the new minimum wage was already captured in the budget when they exited from service.”
However, he assured that the relevant government agencies were processing the shortfall and they would be paid as soon as it was ready.
He regretted that the retirees had chosen to protest instead of engaging with the relevant authorities to find out the true state of affairs regarding their grievances.
