The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the Nigerian Army over failure to pay non-regular allowances to its personnel, despite increased budgetary provision for the purpose from N283 billion in 2020 to about N380 billion in 2021.
This resolution was a sequel to the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Abubakar Nalaraba(APC, Nasarawa) at plenary on Wednesday.
Moving the motion, Nalaraba said there was a significant upward review of Non-Regular Allowance of the Nigerian Army in 2017 to ensure that serving Army Personnel are adequately remunerated and motivated for optimum performance in the provision of adequate security in the country.
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He noted that Non-Regular Allowance which includes payments such as the 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 the entire personnel of the Nigerian Army.
The lawmaker expressed concern that: “despite the increment in budgetary provision for Non-Regular Allowances from N283 billion in 2020 to about N380 billion in 2021, the welfare of 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.
“The country is besieged by several security challenges and the Nigerian Army is currently saddled with internal security operations which include anti-insurgency operations in the North East, anti-banditry operations in the North West, anti-bunkering in the South-South and anti-kidnapping across the country”.
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