Association Cautions Retirees Against Planned Protest

The Association of Ex-
Service Pensioners (AESP) on Tuesday warned against the planned protest by a group of retirees led by retired Lt.-Col. Azubuike Nas .
Retired Col. Ahmed Zubair , the President of the Association, gave the advice while briefing newsmen in Abuja.
Zubair said that the association had through the Defence Headquarters dialogued with the Federal Government and presented the case of military pensioners to it.
He said that the association also gave the Defence Headquarters a list of the areas in which the military pensioners had been allegedly short changed since 2003, and agreed to take adequate action to remedy it.
Zubair said that it was illogical for any group to embark on any form of protest now that the government appeared to be sincere toward solving the military pension problems.
He said that the group had not participated in any of the dialogues that had so far taken place between the military pensioners and the government on pension matters.
“ The group’s main objective of wanting to embark on protest is the quarterly payments of 33 per cent rather than the full payment at once.
“The stance of the group is not surprising because they refused to be part of the discussions between the military pensioners and the government,’’ he said.
Zubair, however, urged the Federal Government to pay the military pensioners the balance of 20.37 per cent which was illegally deducted from their original 53.37 per cent pension increment during the implementation of CONAFSS.
He also urged the government to carry out with effect from HAFSS 2003, Salary review which took effect from Oct. 1, 2003.
The association urged government to pay the balance of retirement benefits to officers and soldiers who disengaged from service between 2003 and 2006, using the approved monetised benefits of HAFSS 2003.
He further urged government to implement the New Minimum Wage Salary Review (CONAFSS 2011) for the military pensioners.
Zubair added that correct computation of the pension aspect of CONAFSS 2007 using the approved pensionable benefits should be carried out.
He noted that the main cause of the present military pension problem was the failure of government to carry out harmonisation since 2003.
“As a result of this, only a fraction of what is supposed to be paid to the military veteran is being paid to him at the moment.
“This is because the correct pension cannot possibly be paid when harmonisation has not been carried out after five successive reviews,’’ he explained.
Zubair said that this development had resulted to a situation whereby the pension of an officer who disengaged earlier in the same rank and years of service was far less than the officer who just disengaged.
He said that the previous government did not show any concern until now that the present government had agreed to correct the anomaly.
“We in the AESP have every cause to embark on protest when it becomes absolutely necessary to do so, ‘’ the president said.