The Military Pensions Board has cleared the air on unsubstantiated information being circulated among military pensioners in the country about increment, urging pensioners to avoid speculation.

The Board, in a statement issued on Monday, signed by Flight Lieutenant Ikenna Ezendu, Public Relations Officer, Military Pension Board, said the attention of the Board “has been drawn to numerous online information circulating among its pensioners stating wrong figures for the implementation of harmonised military pension.

“The Board, while thanking the Federal Government for approving the harmonization of Military Pension, wishes to categorically state as follows:

a. Harmonization is not pension increment rather deliberate effort to bridge the gap in pensions between certain ranks of pensioners who retired before and after consolidation of salaries in July 2010. Therefore, pensioners should endeavor to find out the actual gap between these categories of pensioners to avoid speculation.

b. The mostly affected rank brackets for harmonization are Private to Sergeants as well as Brigadiers-General and above. The harmonization takes effect from August 2016.However, Pension Review Committee under the auspices of the Chief of Defence Staff is working assiduously to review military pension for all retirees.

c. MPB in conjunction with National Salary Income and Wages Commission are working to ensure that approvedtable by Federal Government is applied duringimplementation.

Consequently, Military Pensioners and other stakeholders are advised to disregard unofficial figures being circulated for the harmonisation of military pensions.”