Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Members of the Retired Army, Navy and Air Force Officers Association of Nigeria (RANAD) have expressed dismay over the deliberate under-computation of their new pension allowances by the Military Pension Board.
The ex-military officers, in Kano, lamented that what the board implemented in the month of January 2019 as their new monthly payment was far below what was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The spokesman of the association, Retired Captain Yusuf Abdulmalik, told our correspondent that on account of this underpayment, many ex-military men in Nigeria were unhappy, saying that they were displeased with the way and manner their pension and other unsettled financial issues were being handled by the board.
They recalled that in November 2017, President Buhari had approved a new pension scheme for ex-military men, which placed their monthly take home at par with the basic salaries of their counterparts in service.
He regretted that it took the board a total of 13 months to implement the approved new pension scale adding that they were shocked to receive alerts that were short of their due pension at the end of the month.
“We don’t understand how they arrived at the figure. We don’t understand the computation,” Abdulmalik said.
They urged the authorities of the Military Pension Board to quickly rectify the miscalculations and align themselves with the payment chart as well as initiate the payment of their arrears.
They, however, applauded the Chief of Defence Staff, Minister of Defence and the Chairman of the Military Pension Board for the implementation of the new pension allowance.