By Jude Zoho
Abuja – The Military Pensions Board (MPB) has confirmed Federal Government’s approval of the harmonisation of military pensions.
A statement from the spokesman of the board, Flt.-Lt. Ikenna Ezendu, said the harmonisation took effect from August.
Ezendu said the decision was part of efforts to bridge the gap in pensions between certain ranks of pensioners who retired before and after consolidation of salaries in July 2010.
He said the MPB in conjunction with the National Salary Income and Wages Commission were working to ensure that the approved table by Federal Government was applied during the implementation.
Ezendu, however, advised pensioners and other stakeholders to disregard unofficial figures being circulated.
He said the figures published in some online media were wrong and should not be relied on by the pensioners.
“The mostly affected rank brackets for harmonisation are privates to sergeants as well as brigadier-general and above.
“Therefore, pensioners should endeavour to find out the actual gap in pension between these two categories of pensioners to avoid speculation,’’ he said.
He added that the pension review committee coordinated by the chief of defence staff was working on a general review of military pensions for all retirees.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the gap that existed followed the consolidation of salaries by the Federal Government in 2010.
The present management of the board introduced reforms to streamline the administration of the military pension.
The high-point of the pension reforms included the digitisation of payment and verification of pensioners.
The Federal Government in March 2015 approved the payment of 33 per cent arrears of three years to military pensioners as against the original 53 per cent.
