Ex-service men and
women in the Nigerian Army on Tuesday converged at three different
cantonments in Lagos to undergo two weeks verification exercise.
The exercise will ensure that the ex-service
men regularize payment. It will also help the army to know those still alive
since the last exercise which took place in February 2012.
The exercise, carried out
at Ojo, Ikeja and Bonny Cantonments in Lagos simultaneously,
witnessed a large turned out of ex-service men and women of the ranks of
Lance Corporal and others.
Adebayo Raheem, 69, who
retired in 1979 as Lance Corporal, said: “The exercise is to know the
number of ex-service men and women alive. I collect N29, 000 as a pensioner and
it’s regular. President Buhari is a military man;
he should consider building a two bed-room flat for ex-servicemen.
This is what is done in other parts of the world!”
Mr. Olanrewaju White, who
retired in 1979, said that his gratuity
was N6, 000 and that he now earns N28, 000 as a pensioner.
White complained that the take
home pay for ex-service men was insufficient to take care of their kids and pay
school fees. He said that ex-servicemen had been urged to seek jobs as contract
staff, but whenever they applied for such jobs, they would be rejected on the
grounds that they were too old.
New Telegraph
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