3 Adamawa pensioners die during verification

The Adamawa branch of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners has confirmed the death of three of its members during the local government pension verification in Yola, capital of the state.

On Tuesday, Samson Almuru, chairman of the union, told NAN that the deceased slumped and died during the exercise, while some other members also collapsed.

Almuru described the situation as worrisome, saying the exercise was poorly conducted by the state government.

“We lost three of our staff at the ongoing local government pensioners verification exercise and many people also collapsed,” he said.

“The exercise is the fourth of its kind this year, and there has not been any significant result from the previous verifications.”

Almuru said there were over 30, 000 members of the union in the state, adding that about 10, 000 persons had yet to be captured into the pension pay roll by the state government.

The chairman regretted that several pensioners still collected between N3,000 and N4,000 as monthly pension.

He blamed poor policy and corruption as the major problems affecting the smooth implementation of pension rules and regulations in the state.

“The delay in capturing the pensioners into the pay roll system was among the problems. Some retirees spend up to three years before being captured into the system,” he said.

“For over 20 years now, there was no pension review in the state.

“As I am talking to you now, a lot of pensioners are still collecting between N3,000 and N4,000 as their monthly pension.”

He appealed to the state government to review the pension in line with the constitution.