Soldiers Deployed For Anambra Election Lament Unpaid Allowances, Seek Army Chief, Soludo Intervention

Soldiers deployed for the just concluded Anambra State governorship election have claimed they have not been paid their full election operational allowance by the Nigerian military authorities.

According to SaharaReporters, the soldiers, who spoke anonymously, stated that they were given N24,000 as feeding allowance for the period of November 3 to 9, 2025, but were later told that N15,000 of the amount was their operation allowance for six days, leaving them with only N9000 for feeding.

The soldiers claimed that they are usually paid between N50,000 to N60,000 naira as operation allowance after elections, but are now being told that N15,000 is their operation allowance for seven days.

“Soldiers that came to Anambra State governorship election from different divisions, units and formations, have not been paid their election operation allowance. Most of us came for the election on the 3rd of November 2025 and as we enter the Onitsha barracks, the authorities collected our account numbers that they were going to pay us our election allowance through account,” one of the soldiers explained.

“So on the 7th of November 2025 which is eve of the election, they gave us N24,000 stating that it was for our feeding allowance from 3rd November to 9th of November 2025.

“Now today being 10th November 2025 the Army authorities told us that N15,000 out of the N24,000 is our operation allowance.

“According to them it started from 4th November to 9th November 2025, meaning N2,500 per day for six days and the remaining N9,000 is for our feeding allowance started from 7th November to 9th November, meaning N3,000 per day. That is not how it supposed to be,” the soldiers told SaharaReporters.

“We have gone to many elections, and this is not the first elections we have gone to. After election, the authorities used to pay us N50,000 or N60,000 as the case may be. But now they are telling us N15,000 is our operation allowance after seven days of operation, while the police is collecting N52,000.”

The soldier claimed that they heard information that Governor Chukwuma Soludo had earlier requested for their account numbers so that the state government would pay their allowances directly to their account.

The soldier alleged that the army authorities had refused to supply their account details as requested by the government “because they want to cheat us.”

“We are calling on the state governor, Prof Soludo that after the billions of naira they budgeted for army to pay the troops, only N15,000 was paid to them.”

The soldiers are appealing to the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) to intervene and ensure they are paid their full allowance.

“We are also calling on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) to intervene in this matter to make sure we are paid our money to our bank account,” said one of the soldiers.

The soldiers alleged that the army authorities are corrupt and are trying to deny the soldiers of their earnings.