By OKOSUN DENNIS
Three military pensioners fainted at the Ikeja cantonment on Monday while waiting to collect their Combi identity cards currently being distributed across eight states of the federation by the Military Pensions Board (MPB).
National Daily learnt that those who fainted were between the ages of 70 – 85, and were immediately evacuated to a military hospital by Nigerian army medical team.
Military pensioners had converged on Ikeja Cantonment on Monday for a five-day collection of the newly commissioned Combi ID card by the Military Pensions Board (MPB) last year.
The states were the cards are currently been distributed simultaneously include: Yobe, Borno, Cross Rivers, Katsina, Osun, Ekiti, Zamfara and Lagos states.
At Ikeja cantonment, every pensioner that participated at the 2015 verification exercise at the Bonny, Ikeja and Ojo cantonments were compelled to collect their cards at Ikeja in a poorly organised “show of shame.”
As early as 5am on Monday, old pensioners were streaming into the cantonment parade ground. While some arrived there on Sundaynight due to distance, some with different ailment were brought by their children on wheelchairs.
One of the pensioners spoken to by National Daily, Pte Joe, who had suffered partial paralysis, lamented the awkward way military pensioners are treated in Nigeria.
“How can you ask every military pensioner in Lagos to come to Ikeja cantonment? Why couldn’t they decentralized the distribution just the way verification was done two years ago? He complained.
Pte Joe used the opportunity to appeal to President Muhammad Buhari to act fast and pay the harmonisation of the pension arrears. Joe pointed out that the quarterly payment of the backlog of the 2010 pension arrears was not helping to alleviate their financial burden stressing that if they could be paid ones, it will assist them to plan their investment.
National Daily gathered that at the collection centre, they have been grouped into team A, B and C with each team attending to assigned alphabets from A-Z.
Although canopies and chairs were provided, they couldn’t meet the over 10,000 pensioners that thronged Ikeja cantonment on Monday.