2 pregnant women collapse, die during Bauchi teachers verification

Two pregnant women collapsed and died in Bauchi, yesterday, while waiting to be screened by the Verification Team from the office of the Account General of the state government. The two pregnant women (names withheld) were among the over 6,000 teachers in the state that were asked to assemble at the state local government education secretariat for screening before collecting their salaries. 

An eyewitness,  Abubakar Yusuf ,  a teacher at the Baba Didi primary school that the first woman, who was seven  months pregnant,  fainted when the crowd were pushing to be verified, a situation  that triggered a congestion during the exercise. 

He said they all assembled at the local government education authority for the verification, “because we have not been paid for three months. People came from all 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 summoned for the screening. That was why there was a large turn-out of people.” He added: “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. In the process, an unidentified pregnant woman fainted and went into a comma.” 

“Another pregnant woman also collapsed and had a miscarriage instantly. The two pregnant women were rushed to the hospital for treatment. We later heard that they died.” He called on the state government to ease the sufferings of the teachers during verification exercises by finding alternative methods that will not lead to congestion of centres.

He expressed dissatisfaction with the exercise, describing it as excruciating for their age and health conditions.