THE House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the alleged non-payment of non-regular allowances to soldiers by the Nigerian Army since 2017.
The House, therefore, mandated its Committee on Army to “investigate the disbursement of non-regular allowances to Army personnel from 2017 till date and report back to the House within four weeks.”
A member, Abubakar Nalaraba, had moved a motion that was unanimously adopted at the plenary on Wednesday, titled, ‘Need to investigate the non-payment and under utilisation of non-regular allowances of Nigerian Army personnel despite increment in budgetary provision for these Allowances in 2020 and 2021’.
The lawmaker also noted that the allowance, which includes payments such as first 28 days allowance, operations allowance and duty tour allowance of soldiers and officers, was necessitated to mitigate the effects of current economic realities on the welfare of troops and entire personnel of the Nigerian Army.
He stressed that the increment was captured in the Manual of Finance Administration and approved for implementation by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on January 26, 2018.
Nalaraba said, “The House is concerned that despite the increment in budgetary provision for non-regular allowances from N283bn in 2020 to about N380bn in 2021, the Army personnel have not felt the corresponding effect, and personnel of Nigerian Army involved in internal security operations, training and performance of other military duties are still being owed various types of non-regular allowances.”
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