Activities at the Federal Ministry of Finance were on Monday, August 4, 2025 disrupted as hundreds of retired Nigerian Army personnel on the aegis of ‘Voluntary Discharged Soldiers’ (1st and 2nd quarter retirees), staged a peaceful protest at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
The aggrieved retirees who demanded for the payment of their outstanding entitlements, blocked the main entrance of the Ministry and prevented staff and officials from accessing the building.
Some of the retirees who were dressed in military camouflage, insisted on the immediate payment of the shortfalls in their gratuity, Security Debarment Allowance (SDA), parking allowances, 43 months of withheld salaries, and full disbursement of the wage award palliative.
Moves by a serving Air Vice Marshal, to appease the protesters was met with stiff resistance by the retirees who insisted on their demands being met before any talks could begin.
One of the spokespersons of the retirees, Sergeant Augustine Agommo (retd), said the treatment meted out on retired soldiers was “absurd, ridiculous, most unfair and unacceptable.”
Agommo said the Military Pensions Board dismissed their eligibility for the new minimum wage adjustments, citing their disengagement date of July 1, 2024.
According to Agommo; “We gave our best years to the nation. Many of us are suffering with their families while the system continues to deny us what is rightfully ours.
“We are living heroes and deserve to be recognised and treated rightly, justly and fairly. We don’t have to be celebrated as fallen heroes when we are no more,” he said.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the protesters were later invited for talks with top ministry officials, while armed personnel from the Nigerian Army and other security agencies were also deployed to maintain order.
However, as at the time of this report, neither the Federal Ministry of Finance nor the Military Pension Board had issued an official statement on the development.
