‘Dialogue has failed’ — retired military officers sleep on floor to protest ‘unpaid allowances’

Retired military officers, on Tuesday, continued their protest over the alleged delay in the payment of their allowances.

On Monday, TheCable had reported that the retired members of the Nigerian armed forces (REMENAF) and the coalition of concerned military veterans (CCV), stormed the ministry of defence in Abuja to protest over “unpaid allowances”.

Speaking on the protest on Monday, Roy Okhidievbie, the national secretary of the coalition, had said the demonstration was to demand the payment of their “security debarment allowance”, which President Muhammadu Buhari approved in May 2022.

Some of the retired officers had spent the night on the floor.

Speaking on Tuesday, Abiodun Durowaiye-Herbert, the spokesperson of the military veterans, said the protest would continue until their members are paid.

“Now the issue we seem to have is that since May up to this moment, that money has not been paid to us. We have written a series of letters to the minister of defence, yet no feedback,” NAN quoted him as saying.

“The administration of Muhammadu Buhari will wind down very soon. Of course, this is an opportunity that one of us is the president, another the minister of defence, and even the national security adviser.

“If we miss it this time, will it be a civilian that will understand our plight better than our own colleagues? A number of our members are bedridden, sick and dying on a daily basis.

“So, we felt the only way we can make our grievances known is by coming here to protest since all means of dialogue has failed. We will stay here for as long as it takes them to attend to us.

“We started this protest yesterday, and slept here in the cold and at the mercy of mosquitoes, but it doesn’t matter, because we are doing this for our more than 70,000 colleagues, some of who are bedridden and cannot come here.

“Initially, the approval was given for those who retired from 2017 till date and we told them ‘no, it cannot happen’. Some of us fought a civil war to ensure that this country remains an indivisible entity, and these ones that are there now are our juniors.

“So, how can they benefit and those of us who trained them and even recommended their promotions are excluded?”

On his part, Abdulkadri Mohammad, special assistant on media to the minister of defence, said the ministry is already in talks with the retired officers on the matter.