RE:DISQUIET IN THE WAR FRONT AS SOLDIERS COMPLAIN OF UNPAID ALLOWANCE

The attention of the Nigerian Army has
been drawn to some stories going round
the media circles with the title “Disquiet in
the war front as soldiers complain of
unpaid allowance” alleging that there was
problem in the Nigerian Army due to non-
payment of allowances to some soldiers
serving in the North East.
In particular, they were alleging non-
payment of outstanding peacekeeping
operations allowance of troops that
served in Guinea Bissau under the
auspices of the Economic Community of
West African States and operation
allowances to some troops in counter-
terrorism and counter-insurgency
operations, among others.
The issues contained in such publications
are not true nor correct. While some
media treated the matter professionally,
giving the military benefit of doubt and
sought to know the truth, while others
mischievously went to town with the false
story without recourse to ethics of the
profession and bothering to find out from
the military.
The effort of the former is quite
commendable and really appreciated,
while that of the latter is quite
unfortunate.
For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to
inform the public that the issue of non-
payment of peacekeeping operations
allowance is a minor internal military
administrative matter which was treated
and resolved accordingly and has no
bearing on the fight against terrorism and
insurgency as they mischievously alleged.
It should be reiterated that the alleged
non-payment of operations allowance
among the returnee peacekeepers was
due to administrative hitches which was
solved to the point that all outstanding
peacekeeping operations have been paid
and the last batch payment was done last
Tuesday.
As regards to payment of operations
allowances, it is borne out of deliberate
mischief and failure to comply with the
new measures aimed at ensuring probity
and accountability in the Service. All
officers and soldiers are now paid their
operations allowance directly into their
account.
All those that did not receive theirs was
due to non-compliance with the directive
of giving correct account details or
duplication of names due to recent
postings. This has been explained to all
those affected and efforts were on to
rectify same shortly.
We wish to state further that those
soldiers involved or complaint to the
media are very few compared to the
soldiers in the operation area who are
working assiduously to finally clear the
remnants of Boko Haram terrorists.
Majority of our troops have been
receiving their allowances regularly. The
very few indiscipline ones cannot be used
to distract us, neither should they be used
as yardstick to measure troops general
well being and performance.
Already issues relating to troops welfare
have been of utmost priority to Mr
President and the Army leadership is
doing everything possible to ensure
troops' high morale.
We would like to once again thank those
responsible media outfits that showed
understanding and maturity in reporting
issues of national defence and security
professionally.
Thank you for your kind cooperation.
Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman
Acting Director Army Public Relations