The Military High Command has assured its retired men that the 12.5 per cent and the 15 per cent pension increment would be paid to them enbloc early next year. Already, the National Assembly has directed the Military Pension Board to ensure its inclusion into the 2010 budget proposals for their approval.
Military pensioners have in the last six years been agitating for inclusion in 12.5 per cent military salaries increment of 2003 and the 15 per cent increment of 2007 announced by the federal government.
Brigadier-General Bitrus Kwaji, Director of MPB, who spoke in Abuja, disclosed that a total of 140,000 pensioners currently undergoing verification to enable the board update its data bank would next year receive the accrued arrears. Kwaji said the exercise was meant to know the figures of pensioners for government to make budgetary allocation for their regular payment..
He explained that ex-soldiers eligible for the verification exercise were those currently on the payroll of MPB and medically boarded retired ranks and officers that were earlier cleared. He also warned that the military was determined to decisively deal with mischievous persons that would attempt claims just to benefit from the pay, noting that those who really served but left the military on their own volition or were dismissed for disciplinary measures are not qualified for pensions.
The military authority in the last ten years faced an overwhelming multitude of men laying siege at its pension board as well as other key military locations in Abuja to formalize relevant documents so as to become beneficiaries. The military has consistently denied that the huge number of those perambulating the periphery of its locations in the FCT may be fake pensioners who do not have any claim to make.