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...For a better society... Monday, December 06 2004 Vol 13 No.44 News Editorial Opinion Labour Politics Sports Features Columnists Business Money/Market Energy Alaba Market View From America 4 military pensioners die awaiting pay CAJETAN MMUTA, Asaba FOUR military pen-sioners were feared dead yesterday in Asaba, the Delta State capital, while waiting to collect their seven- month arrears. The deceased were among over 2,000 others being camped since last Monday in an open field of Oshimili Council Arcade, Asaba, where they are being screened for the payment of the pension arrears. But the state chairman of the Nigerian Legion, Lt.-Col. Bebeteido Lucky (rtd), said only one ex-serviceman (names withheld) lost his life since the screening commenced. Daily Champion gathered that the ex-servicemen had no access to food and adequate medical attention since last Monday, November 29, when they arrived the city. They were expected to identify themselves physically before they could be screened for the payment by the army pension authorities even as they were exposed to the cold for days. Investigations showed that despite the long wait, the ex-servicemen had not received any money, but were only shown papers by the military pension clarks with which to collect money from the designated banks. Some of the ex-soldiers who spoke with journalists in the open field last Saturday confirmed that four of their colleagues had died during the week but their corpses were taken away by relations. One of them who demanded for anonymity, said that he had regretted ever serving the nation only to face an uncertain fate. According to the ex-soldier "if we had known this would be our fate, we should have allowed Nigeria to break during the civil war," stressing that they were being pushed from one place to another without success" he said. He noted that even when they were issued with relevant clearance papers to collect their money from the bank, the bank officers drove them away because there is no such money for them to collect. Daily Champion gathered that in spite of the week-long screening, the military pensioners were left with the option of collecting only one month out of the seven-month arrears. Commander P.F. Ihadan of the Defence Ministry, who led the screening committee, declined comments on the number of the deceased amid fears of the health risk of hundreds of others in the open field. Meanwhile, state chairman of the Nigeria Legion said the corpse of the ex-soldier had been deposited at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Asaba mortuary. � 2004 @ Champion Newspapers Limited (All Right Reserved). Powered By dnetsystems.net dnet�

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