An 80-year-old pensioner, Mr Samuel Olatunji, on Wednesday, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, slumped and died while waiting to have his finger- prints captured in the on-going verification of pensioners exercise by officials from Abuja.

Three others, who were exhausted as a result of the slow pace of the exercise being held at the federal secretariat in Ikolaba, also slumped and were rushed to unknown hospitals.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune at the venue, the state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Alhaji Lateef Adegoke, said the deceased was brought from Lanlate area of Oyo State to have his finger prints registered before he slumped, was stabilised and put in a vehicle.

He later died in the car and was taken away by his relations before newsmen could get to the scene. His monthly pension was put at about N1, 000.

Alhaji Adegoke said such tragedy had been a recurring event among the retired workers, blaming the unfortunate incident on inadequate data and finger capturing machines deployed for the exercise.

He accused government of insensitivity to the welfare of retired workers, a reason only two machines were being used to take the finger prints of about 9,000 pensioners.

The chairman, while calling for a two-week extension of the exercise to accommodate more pensioners, also urged the office of the head of service of the federation to deploy more equipment to the state to ease the plight of the old pensioners.

The head of officials in charge of the exercise said he was not allowed, as civil servant, to speak to the press, when he was asked to comment on the slow pace of work at the centre.

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