Pension: Military begins Electronic Verification Exercise for veterans Monday

The Military Pension Board has announced that it will fully commence Electronic Verification Exercise on Monday July 1, 2024, for all veterans who served meritoriously in the institution before their exit.

The Chairman of the Board, Paul Irumheson, who made the announcement at a press briefing in Abuja, disclosed that the exercise would run for the period of 3 months, starting from July 1 and ends September 30, 2024.

Irumheson, an Air Vice Marshal, explained that migrating the exercise to electronic form from physical one was crucial because of the security risk of travelling from one place to the other.

He also listed old age of some of the pensioners as well as high cost of transportation, particularly for those staying abroad as part of the reasons for adopting electronic exercise.

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The MPB boss told journalists that the pilot test of the exercise that was carried out between February 19 and March 1, 2024 was successful, adding that out of the 2000 pensioners that took part in the exercise, only 15 persons failed.

He, however, said that the little observations noticed through the 15 failed ones have been used to perfect the system.

“You may recall that on Feb 15, 2024, I briefed this honorable press about the MPB intention or plan to move from physical verification exercise to electronic verification exercise for our military retirees.

“On this note, the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, and the CDS Gen. CG Musa have approved the commencement of the Electronic Verification Exercise for our esteemed Veterans.

“The Board will carry out sufficient public awareness and education that will assist our retired pensioners on how to carry out this verification.

“Therefore, as the Chairman of MPB, I hereby declare the MPB Electronic Verification Exercise officially open on full scale for all our retired pensioners for a period of 3 months from 1 July to 30 September 2024,” he said.

The Board called on all retired military officers who are pensioners to take active part in this exercise, saying those that fail to take part in the verification exercise will not get their pensions going forward.