Rivers State pensioners have cried out over what they termed ‘the incessant calls for biometric exercise’ by the government.
Speaking to our correspondent, a retiree told Thepportcitynews that for the fourth time this year, the Rivers State government has called for biometric exercises despite the fact that they had done the needed verifications and biometrics at the government house.
He pleaded for the State government be considerate over the plights of the retirees who are mainly old, sick and do not have the funds to frequently transport themselves to the venues of the biometric exercise.
According to him, it is also important to put into cognisance that some of these retirees have chronic illnesses like stroke, senile dementia, etc that do not allow them to go to the office for the biometric exercise and sometimes, their names are erased from the computer system which automatically denies them their monthly pension stipend.
Theportcitynews learnt that another biometric exercise has been slated to hold on 2nd of October, 2018 to ascertain the number of retirees alive.
This would be the third time such exercise is being carried out, not including the ones done at the local government areas.
What is not clear however is if this will be the last biometric exercise for the year or there will be another.