Retired military personnel in the country have vowed to resume their suspended protest over non-payment of their Security Debarment Allowance, among others.
The military veterans, under the aegis of Coalition of Concerned Veterans, had embarked on a nationwide protest on January 5, with a vow to disrupt the celebration of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day on January 15.
However, the Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Magashi (retd.), pleaded with the veterans, saying the planned protest was capable of “sending wrong signals to the international communities”, promising to see to their demands.
But speaking in an interview with our correspondent on Friday, the spokesperson of the Coalition of Concerned Veterans, Abiodun Durowaiye-Herberts said despite the assurance by Magashi to expedite action on the payment of their SDA and other allowances, no action had been taken on them.
According to him, only the payment of the 24 months arrears of minimum wage which was amortised had been done.
He also explained that paying the minimum wage arrears in tranches has not helped to ameliorate the hardship being faced by the retired military personnel, demanding full payment.
Durowaiye-Herberts said, “The Minister of Defence assured us when we met with him to fast track the payment of the Security Debarment Allowance. He also promised to address the issue of Salaries/Pensions Disparities; Short payment of the Medically Boarded Veterans; Unpaid Civil War Veterans, review of the National Health Insurance Scheme to accommodate the peculiarities of ageing veterans, among others.
“We were made to believe that it has been forwarded to the president for approval. We have been made to understand that they have not taken it there and have not started working on our other demands.
We want to acknowledge the payment of the first instalment of our 24 months arrears of minimum wage differential. However, the payment of the minimum wage differential in four tranches over 12 calendar months would compound the pains of the vulnerable veterans.
“Tranche payments of any arrears due to the veterans do not speak well considering their sacrifices for the nation. We need the full payments of the remaining Minimum Wage Differential arrears by April 30, 2022.
“We had written to the minister since last month and we are yet to get a response from him. We have stated clearly our next line of action. We have only suspended our protest, we will be coming out again to the streets if our demands are not met.”
Efforts to get the Special Assistant Media and Publicity to the Minister of Defence, Mohammed Abdulkadir, proved abortive. He did not pick up his calls and was yet to respond to a message sent to his line on the matter.
Culled from: Punch newspaper
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