Hundreds of soldiers fighting at the war front in the North East have not been paid their allowances for several months, some soldiers have said.

The unpaid allowances include Peace Keeping allowances and the daily operational allowances for those engaged in the counter-insurgency war in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, the soldiers said.

A soldier who spoke to journalists in Yola said he and about 200 of his colleagues from 158 Task Force Battalion who fought in the AU Peace Keeping operation in Guinea Bissau in 2015 were owed six months allowances.

Another soldier said eight of the affected soldiers were killed by Boko Haram in a recent clash in Kareto and another one died in an accident, disputing claims by military authorities that only one soldier died in Kareto, and insisting that the battalion lost eight men while several others went missing.

“When we fought in Guinea Bissau between 2014 and 2015, they promised to pay our allowances immediately we arrived in Nigeria but when we returned they sent us to Jaji for training and promised to pay us before the end of the training. Soon after the training we were posted to fight in Yobe and Borno and nobody is talking about our allowances anymore,” one of the soldiers said.

Meanwhile, many soldiers interviewed by Daily Trust in Northern part of Adamawa said they had not received their operational allowances for between three to four months. “I have not received my operational allowance of N1,000 per day since November. In every unit you find a number of soldiers facing similar problem,” the soldier said.

•Sourced from Daily Trust. Photo shows Nigerian soldiers engaged in the war against Boko Haram.

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