Abuja — The minister of state for Defence, Alhaji Abdulrahman Adamu, has promised ex-biafrian soldiers that their case for payment of pensions and gratuities would be taken before President Umaru Yar'Adua for his considerations.

The minister made the pledge in his office yesterday when a delegation of ex-soldiers that were recruited by the then Biafrian army paid him a courtesy visit. The minister thanked the ex-soldiers for the way they have handled their agitations so far, and promised that since their demands were not being made as a right, he will in conjunction with the defence minister, Maj. Gen. Godwin Abbe (rtd), deliberate and study their demands, and based on merit and understanding, communicate same to President Yar'Adua before getting back to them. On cases of those granted clemency in the past, which included the head of the then Biafrian government, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, the minister educated the ex-soldiers by telling them that those granted amnesty by the federal government included only those originally recruited into the Nigerian army but out of sympathy fought on the side of Biafria. Earlier in his speech, the leader of the retirees, Col. Augustine Oshiwu (rtd) said they were in Abuja to make a case for ex-Biafrian soldiers that fought in the Nigerian Civil War.

He prayed for understanding of the federal government in the payment of their pensions, gratuities and any other entitlement government may deem fit to pay them. He disclosed that their petition in the past was what led to the payment of pensions and gratuities to ex-Biafrian soldiers with original background in the Nigerian Armed Forces. The ex-soldiers denied claims in certain quarters that they belonged to MASSOB and prayed the Nigeria state to treat them like the first class citizens they are.