Army housing scheme fraudulent - Soldiers tell Buhari

In an open letter to the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), co-signed by 05NA/57/2084 Sgt. Yusuf Shetima,04NA/55/0925 Cpl James Ibok, 09NA/62/5578 LCPL Danladi Ibrahim,11NA/66/10622 LCPL Afolabi Showumi and 13NA/70/11034 PTE Lucky Dolph, the men accused the Commissioned Officers of "eating fat while we starved."

The letter read in part: "On behalf of the entire Non Commissioned Officers, and the Senior Non commissioned Officers, we write to reject the proposed plan of the Nigerian Army to further increase their tempo in a way of continuous swindling and to put us and our family into persistent suffering of hunger and starvation."

Following the high rate of inflation, the petitioners said it has become difficult for them to feed their families or pay school fees from their meagre salary.

"Yet, the Nigerian Army has devised a means of taking or collecting it back from us the Scarce Skill Allowance under the guise of a useless, fraudulent and so- called Nigerian Army Welfare Housing Scheme.

"It is pertinent to note that the Army cannot exist or stand in the absence of the NCO and the SNCO, but the Army can stand or exist and function effectively without the commissioned officers.

"This is to say that the SNCO and the NCO are the pillars or the Nigerian Army and without them, the NA cannot exist and yet, there suffer the most," the aggrieved men stated.

The petition further noted, "The NCOs and the SNCOz are not well paid and yet the Army wants to deduct a whopping sum of N15,410.30k, N16,703.92k, N17,103.92k, N18,868.97k, N21,516.27k, N26,732.74k, N30,000 and N49,086.49k on monthly basis and according to the rank, respectively.

"After this deduction, they still want us to feed and also buy our military uniforms from the remaining change."

The Director, Army Public Relations Officer Brig. Gen. Mohammed Yerima, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.