New Telegraph

Niger sacks 80 civil servants for salary scam

ew days after the Niger State Universal Basic Education Board (NSUBEB) uncovered more than 1,500 ghost workers, the state government yesterday said it has sacked eighty civil servants cutting across various cadres in the state civil service for a massive salary scam running into millions of naira. New Telegraph gathered that the dismissed civil servants were drawn from various Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) of the state, who were found culpable in the on-going salary verification exercise.

Confirming the development at a postexco briefing, the state Head of Service, Hajiya Salamatu Abubakar, said the affected civil servants were now awaiting their dismissal letters from the Office of the state Civil Service Commission in a few days’ time. Accordingly, she said “all the indicted civil servants made confessional statements before the state Salary Audit Committee and their respective MDAs on their roles in adding ghost names to the state’s payroll to paying themselves salaries and allowances they were not qualified for.

“There was an instance where a messenger in the state judicial service was found to be collecting the salary of a high court judge. It is as bad as that. She added that; “A civil servant was also impersonating the Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Haruna Dukku and was collecting his salary for two years, thereby making it look as if he was earning double salaries, what will he tell the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after leaving office, if such an individual was not apprehended?” The head of service further disclosed that Governor Abubakar Sani Bello gave the go ahead for the sack of the civil servants during the state executive council meeting in Minna on Wednesday.

Giving a breakdown of the number of affected civil servants, the head of service said the Hospital Management Board had 45 members of staff affected, the judiciary, which included sharia courts, magistrate and high court judicial officials, 22 workers; Primary Health Care Development Agency, three workers, Ministry of Health, 7 workers; Ministry of Education, one worker, while School of Midwifery, Minna and that of Tunga Magajiya, had one and two workers respectively, who were found culpable during the salary audit committee exercise.

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