27 JAILED SOLDIERS: COLLEAGUES YET TO GET FULL PAYMENT

The last may not have been heard of the 27 soldiers who were court martialed and jailed two years ago by authorities of the Nigerian Army for taking to the streets over unpaid allowances.

The soldiers who are currently serving their jail terms at various prisons across the country had sometime in 2008, taken to the streets of Akure, the Ondo state capital to protest their six-month unpaid peacekeeping allowance by the army authorities.

Meanwhile, the bone of contention now is that the allowances which cost the soldiers their career are yet to be paid fully by the army authorities.

Their colleagues who are still in service told Daily Sun in Abuja that rather than pay the soldiers who were members of Nigeria Battalion (NIBATT) 14 and 15 of the Nigerian contingent under the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), the stipulated $1,200 monthly allowance for six months they served, they were paid only $1,000 for five months.

As if that was not enough, army authorities allegedly deducted a certain amount of money from their salaries for six months, while what is left of their one-month peacekeeping allowance was yet to be paid. Daily Sun investigations revealed that the deduction which was carried out between October 2008 and March 2009 from the Army Head Quarters in Abuja, deducted between N25,00 and N40,000 from the soldiers' salaries depending on their ranks.

For instance, those in the rank of corporals and below, had N25,000, deducted from their salaries for six months, Sergeants and above, N30,000 while officers had about N40,000 deducted from their salaries within the period had their monies deducted.