Dozens of retired military personnel, early Monday morning, blocked the main entrance of the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja, demanding the immediate payment of their outstanding entitlements, including gratuities, Security Debarment Allowance (SDA), parking allowance, and salary arrears.
The protest, which began around 7 a.m. yesterday, left many civil servants stranded outside the ministry premises. The ex-soldiers, some of whom appeared visibly agitated, said they had exhausted all diplomatic avenues before resorting to the protest. According to them, the Federal Government has continuously failed to fulfill its obligations, leaving many of them and their families in hardship.
One of the retirees, Corporal Umar Faruq (rtd.), who identified himself as an engineer, explained that the Military Pensions Board (MPB) had allegedly denied them the benefits of the new minimum wage on the grounds that they were disengaged before the wage took effect.
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“We are not dead heroes, we are still alive and should be treated with dignity, not remembered only during Remembrance Day parades,” he said.
Despite the intervention of the Chairman of the Military Pensions Board, Air Vice Marshal Adamu, who pleaded with the protesters to remain calm, the demonstrators stood their ground. They insisted that no one was leaving until they received concrete assurances that their demands would be met. Placards with messages like “We are living heroes, not fallen ones” and “Pay us our four-month salary shortfalls now” were boldly displayed.
Later in the morning, the Permanent Secretary of the Finance Ministry, accompanied by other senior officials, arrived at the protest site and invited selected representatives of the retirees and the MPB Chairman for a closed-door meeting to resolve the matter.
However, one protester told journalists they would not vacate the premises until the MPB Chairman addressed them publicly and confirmed that payments had been approved and alerts were already being processed.
