About 1,700 aggrieved retired soldiers served notice yesterday, to mass up in Parliament House today, to demand their unpaid allowances and gratuities.
According to them, they have not received their full emoluments since 2010, despite numerous letters and petitions they have sent to the Ministry of Defence and the Ghana Armed Forces.
The ex-soldiers claim they are experiencing a lot of hardships as a result of the non-payment of the entitlements.
The Times is alarmed at this revelation by the soldiers, coming on the heels of the junior doctors who also picketed in Accra, on Monday to demand the payment of their 11 months salaries.
We are worried that people have to embark on demonstrations or exert other forms of pressure before they are even given hearing over what is genuinely theirs.
Why should it be so? Indeed, the complaints and threats by the ex-soldiers, send chills down our spines, for this is a group of people who have served the country selflessly. They have risked their lives for this country in the not too distant past and, therefore, deserve to be treated better.
We are not arguing that they are better Ghanaians and should be treated specially. Our argument is that, they belong to the group of citizens who sacrificed to protect us, and sometimes lost their lives doing so.
The least the nation can do for them is to pay them their severance and retirement benefits in time to ensure they enjoy their retirement in peace.
It is regrettable that such men and women who proudly served in one of the most respectable armed forces in the world, would have to go through such trying moments of retirement.
Our military institution is as critical and necessary as our political class, and deserves our recognition and assistance
We urge the government and Parliament to marshal the necessary finances and reserves, and pay them their allowances and gratuities, to enable them to have decent retirement.
We also plead with our ex-soldiers to exercise restraint, while the government looks into their plight.
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