Two pregnant women die in Bauchi during verification exercise; Gov. Abubakar sacks SUBEB management
From:Ruth David ,Bauchi
Two pregnant women died in Bauchi Tuesday while waiting to be screened by the Verification Team from the office of the Accountant General of Bauchi state.
Newsmen learnt that the two pregnant women (names withheld) were among the about 6,000 teachers in the state that were asked to assemble at the the state local government education secretariat for screening before collecting their salaries.
Speaking to newsman on the incident, an eyewitness, Abubakar Yusuf, a teacher at the Baba Didi Primary School, said that the first woman who was 7 months pregnant fainted when the crowd was pushing to be verified.
Yusuf added that, “we all assembled at the local government education authority to be verified because we have not been paid for three months. People came from the local government areas of the state so there was a massive crowd that gathered at the venue.
“The verification exercise took us by surprise because we were in the classroom teaching when we were called upon to be screened. That was why there was a large turnout of people.
“Some of the people who came early were lucky enough to be verified, but as the crowd kept increasing, people began to push each other, not minding who was standing close by. In the process, the unidentified pregnant woman fainted and went into a comma.”
According to him, “the second pregnant woman also collapsed and had a miscarriage instantly. The two pregnant women were rushed to the hospital for treatment and we later heard that they were dead.
Abubakar Yusuf appealed to the state government to ease the sufferings the teachers experienced during verification exercises by finding alternative methods that will not lead to overcrowding and the type of tragedy that was experienced.
Meanwhile, as a result of the delay in the payment of salaries of staff of the Local Education Authority in Bauchi State and the challenges brought about by the tardiness of some officers involved, Governor of the state, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar has approved the immediate removal of four management staff of the State’s Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB.
The affected officers are the Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Ya’u Garba; Director Administration and Human Resources, Alhaji Haruna Bako; Director Finance and Accounts, Alhaji Umar Umaru Jaja; and the Internal Auditor, Alhaji Adamu Mohammed.
Their removal comes as the workers’ verification exercise climaxed with the crisis of the alleged death of the two pregnant women and a clear manifestation of negligence of duty on the part of the removed senior officers of the Board.
A letter signed by the Head of the State Civil Service, Abdon Gin,which communicated the removal of the affected officers also said that they concealed some vital information from both the “new Chairman of the Board and some members of the Bauchi State House of Assembly while on oversight function”.
Gin stated further: “this was pertaining to remittance of funds made to the Board for the payment of teachers’ salaries for which adequate funds were released by the Government for immediate payment to all the verified teachers under the Board.”
