Against the backdrop of a video that went viral, accusing the board of the Military Pensions Board (MPB) of abandoning retired military personnel and not being able to pay pensions to ex-soldiers, the MPB has said the video should be ignored as it is a total misrepresentation of facts.
The MPB said that on receipt of the said video, it put in place a fact finding team to investigation by the author of the video, one Army Private Ibrahim Umoru, and discovered that the soldier failed to attend mandatory verification exercises from 2003 to 2019, to ascertain if he was still alive, as is the procedure for payment of pensions.
The MPB however assured that with his reappearance, the board has initiated processes to ensure that he is paid pension while it will also investigate why Private Umoru disappeared and refused to partake in the verification exercises for 16 years.
A statement signed by Flight Lieutenant Obasi Okoroafor, Public Relations Officer of MPB said, “The attention of the Military Pensions Board (MPB) Abuja has been drawn to a video publication by an online medium accusing MPB of abandonment of its pensioners and not able to pay them their pension thereby leaving them to their fate.
“The MPB wishes to state that the video did not represent the actual fact of the issue.
“It is not only untrue but baseless and misrepresentation of facts capable of misleading unsuspected members of the public.
“The MPB as a responsible organisation wishes to debunk the representation of the so called video in order to set the record straight.
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“The Board on discovering the video circulating in the social media send a fact finding committee to investigate the claims with a view of finding the true state of the claims.
“The committee visited the site and discovered that the pensioner with service number 63NA/339199 pte Ibrahim Umoru is a pensioner from the Nigerian Army and have been receiving his monthly Pension since 2003 to March 2019 without any delay.
“His gratuity has equally been paid to him after his discharge from the Nigerian Army.
‘It was also discovered that the claimed outstanding months of arrears was as a result of his absence to verification exercise from 1982 to 2003 carried out every 2 years by the Board.
“In this regard, the Board has an established procedure of investigating the authenticity of such claims to avoid being defrauded by mischievous elements.
“Notwithstanding, efforts are ongoing to unravel what transpired during those period before his appearance.
“The Board always welcome complains from genuine retired personnel and also advise retirees to avoid accumulating pension arrears due to not turning up for documentation or verification as its contacts are always available through various means.
“When he visited the Military Pensions Board recently to request for the claimed arrears before the video, the chairman Major General AB Adamu immediately directed the commencement of the process of investigation for the purpose of confirmation and payment.
“The MPB under the leadership of Major General AB Adamu wishes to assure pensioners and Nigerians in general of the determination of the Board in making sure that all pensioners receive their entitlement as when due.”
Obasi Okoroafor
Flight Lieutenant
Public Relations Officer
