The Ministry of Defence has explained that the delayed payment of allowances to House Officers and Interns attached to Armed Forces Reference Hospitals nationwide was caused by the absence of budgetary allocation in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
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The clarification followed a viral video by a House Officer identified as Dr. Innocent, who said he works at the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospital, Calabar, and had worked for about 290 days without receiving payment.
In a statement personally signed on Monday by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Richard Pheelangwah, the ministry described reports alleging total non-payment as inaccurate, saying payment of outstanding allowances had already commenced.
According to the statement, a total of 703 House Officers and Interns were engaged for the 2025/2026 House Officers and Interns Programme.
Pheelangwah said Batches A and B had been paid up to April 2026, while Batch C, comprising 90 House Officers and Interns, had received allowances for December 2025 and January 2026.
The ministry gave the breakdown of payments already made as follows: Batches A and B received January and February 2026 allowances on March 26, 2026; March 2026 allowances on April 30, 2026; and April 2026 allowances on July 8, 2026. Batch C received December 2025 and January 2026 allowances on July 8, 2026.
The ministry said efforts were ongoing to clear the remaining arrears as additional funds become available.
“The delay is attributable to the absence of budgetary allocation for the payment of these allowances since January 2026 and not to any administrative lapse on the part of the Ministry,” the statement said.
Pheelangwah disclosed that the ministry had formally drawn the attention of the Budget Office of the Federation to the funding shortfall through official correspondence with reference numbers AZ/150CON/I/42 dated February 18, 2026, and AZ/150CON/I/53 dated July 1, 2026.
He said the ministry requested intervention from the Budget Office to address the funding gap.
“The outstanding arrears arose because no budgetary provision was made for the House Officers and Interns Programme in the 2026 Appropriation Act. This is an unprecedented development and the first occurrence since the inception of the programme,” he stated.
The Permanent Secretary said the House Officers and Interns Programme had, for over four decades, remained a statutory and strategic component of the ministry’s healthcare system.
He added that the programme had contributed significantly to the training of medical professionals for the Armed Forces of Nigeria and the country at large.
Pheelangwah reaffirmed the ministry’s commitment to resolving the funding challenge and appreciated the patience, understanding and dedication of the affected House Officers, Interns and their families.
He urged members of the public to disregard misleading reports and rely only on official communications issued by the Ministry of Defence.
The controversy followed Dr. Innocent’s viral appeal, in which he said he and seven other colleagues at the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospital, Calabar, had worked for about 290 days without receiving salaries from the Ministry of Defence.
In the video, he said House Officers at the facility carried out extensive clinical duties, including working at the General Out-Patient Department and Accident and Emergency Unit, assisting in surgeries and serving as a link between patients and consultants due to shortage of resident doctors.
The Nigerian Navy had earlier said the affected doctors belonged to a supplementary batch of House Officers whose salaries are handled by the Ministry of Defence, adding that the delay was not peculiar to the Navy but also affected House Officers in Army and Air Force hospitals under the same arrangement.
Navy spokesperson, Navy Captain Abi Folorunsho, said the hospital management had continued to pay an additional stipend to the affected House Officers despite the delayed payment from the Ministry of Defence.
Folorunsho also said the matter was being addressed and expressed hope that it would be resolved within two weeks.
The Defence Ministry’s latest explanation now attributes the arrears to the omission of the House Officers and Interns Programme from the 2026 Appropriation Act, while insisting that payments have resumed in phases and that remaining arrears will be cleared as funds become available.
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