A retired
school principal in Imo State, Mr. Stephen Nnadi, has reportedly committed
suicide. He reportedly took his life following the failure of government to pay
his
pensions and gratuity.
The Bishop
of the Anglican Diocese of Orlu, Most Rev. Bennett Okoro, announced the
pensioner’s death in an emotion-laden 85-page presidential address, delivered
during this year’s synodOkoro said, “A former school principal, Stephen Nnadi,
who retired from the Imo State school system last December, committed suicide
last week.”
The cleric
further disclosed that the late retired school principal had reportedly
complained on several occasions that life was becoming increasingly difficult and
unbearable for him since he retired last year from the state school system.
“The reason
was that he had not been paid pension and gratuity since retirement and could
not take care of his family and he felt he was a failure,” Okoro added.
Okoro equally
narrated how another suicide bid was averted in the state, following his
intervention, even as he gave a graphic detail of how the jobless and
frustrated man visited and pointedly told him (Okoro) that he was going to hang
himself.
The
Archbishop recalled that after prayer and counseling, the man was later given
some money and food items, even as he maintained that joblessness and hunger
were his major worries.
Okoro
therefore appealed to the Imo State Government to not only pay the pensioners,
but to also drop any idea of asking the senior citizens to sign off part or all
their entitlements.
He suggested
that if the current administration was not able to pay them, the financial
burden should be left for the next administration.
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