Military pensioners were on Wednesday prevented by soldiers from staging a protest at the ministry of defence building in Abuja over “non-implementation of consequential adjustments to their pensions.”

The retired military personnel had converged on an open field near the ministry, holding aloft banners with various inscriptions.

They were making their way to the ministry’s main gate when soldiers cordoned off the area.

President Bola Tinubu recently approved new salary scale for serving military officers with a view to bolstering their performance across all the theatres of operations in the country.

The increment, which the retired military officers said it shouldn’t have left them out having served the country diligently for 35 years or more, cut across all the ranks in the military.

A retired Master Warrant Officer, who didn’t want his name in print, told our correspondent that the Minister was supposed to have met them in order to sort out the issue but the people around him prevented him from doing so.

“Gen. Christopher Musa is a kind man. He is always willing to see to the welfare of both the serving and retired personnel but those around him don’t want him to succeed,” he said.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has raised concern over the departure of more than 200 lecturers of Kaduna State University, (KASU).

Chairman of ASUU-KASU, Dr Abubakar Abdullahi, disclosed this at a press conference on Monday in Kaduna, lamenting that lecturers, including professors, left the institution due to poor conditions of service and non-implementation of the 2025 Federal Government- ASUU Agreement.

Abdullahi said that most of the lecturers who left the institution secured appointments in newer universities within and outside Kaduna State.

Consequently, the Union has issued a two-week ultimatum to the Kaduna State Government and university authorities to implement and domesticate the agreement.

The union warned that failure to act within the period could result in a total and indefinite strike at the university.

•The new Speaker of the Edo House of Assembly, Mr Yekini Idiaye

The Edo House of Assembly has sworn in a newly elected Speaker , Yekini Idiaye, following the resignation of the former speaker, Blessing Agbebaku.

Speaking in an interview after his swearing-in ceremony in Benin, Idiaye pledged the full cooperation of the house to the state executive, describing Governor Monday Okpebholo as a performing leader who deserved legislative backings.

“He is doing a lot for the people of Edo, so we have to cooperate with him to move the state forward,” he added.

Fielding question on the exit of the former speaker, Idiaye cited the challenges of corruption and poor leadership.

Idiaye said: ” There’s corruption here and there. Every now and then it is adjournment — we resume tomorrow, adjournment for another 30 days, 20 days — and we were all not too happy with this leadership style.”

The new speaker pointed out that a weak legislature directly affected the executive, adding that the house had to act to protect the governor’s performance.

“Once the leadership is poor, it will drag the work of the governor backwards. So we decided to say no.”