The death last week of Mallam Habibu Imam a senior teacher with the IBB Primary School in Minna metropolis of Niger State while conducting assembly for pupils has been found out to be as a result of constant asthma attack. Habibu who was a former pupil of the great Islamic Scholar in Minna Alhaji Lawal Murshid has been battling with asthma for over 17 years and has constantly been using several asthma medications to suppress the aliment without recourse to proper medical advice or attention,it was learnt.
His sudden death at the assembly ground where he was reported to have asked students to pray so that government will pay their three months outstanding salaries might not be true afterall it has been revealed that salaries of workers at the local government level are intact. But government said it can only pay the salaries after the current verification exercise embarked upon to fish out ghost workers who are in their thousands at the LGAs.
One of the deceased colleagues, Mallam Danladi Ayawa who spoke to Watch Dog reporters said they were “ surprised with the way and manner the media drummed up the story without closely doing an investigation as to what exactly made our late colleague to slump and die.”
Describing the deceased as a very hardworking teacher at the IBB Primary School, he said the man came to the school that early morning looking hail and hearty but “ we his colleagues know the aliment he has been battling with over the years because this is not the first time the man would collapse and later got revived
“When he came to the school that faithful morning late Mallam Habibu was full of life because we even exchanged pleasantries before I went to the gate to stop late comers only for me to be called upon that my good friend has slumped and died. Initially I was not worried because he has slumped severally in the past but this time the asthma attack was too strong for him to control because he was not with his tent Olin inhaler”.
Another teacher at the school who spoke exclusively to Watch Dog reporters said the chief
servant cannot owe teachers salary because that is his jurisdiction saying that as a teacher before becoming a governor he is in a best position to known the problem of teachers.
He said what the Governor has been doing to pensioners is enough to know that he would not play with teachers’ salary maintaining that the state and local government dispense an average of N200.00m as monthly pension to 12,121 pensioners currently on the state pay roll.
He also said that sequel to the enactment of pension reform act in 2004 ,the state government is one of the first three states to domesticate the law by passing its law in 2007 and that over 50,000 civil servant have registered at state and local government council with the pension fund administrators.
According to him, “if the Chief Servant, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu can on monthly basis pay over N200.00m to pensioners why will the media say that he was unable to pay teachers salary? This is not fair, we know that there is verification exercise going across the Local Government Areas let our teachers be patient as their money would be paid”.
He said “what we need now at this point in time is to continue to pray for the good will of the state and the government so that other laudable programmes would be sustained for the benefit of mankind”.
