Over 134 ghost workers have been discovered in Lapai Local Government Council in Niger state.
This follows a recent staff verification exercise by the council.
Chairman of the local government council, Alhaji Muazu Jantabo mentioned that over N50m, alleged to be diverted monthly was saved after the exercise.
Jantabo stated this during an interaction by the media in Minna the state Capital.
He said, ” We found out the fraud was perpetrated through the duplication of Bank Verification Numbers BVN , sharing of bank accounts as well as usage of fake academic certificates”.added Jantabo
” We discovered that some staff were paid salaries above their grade levels.
“Major culprits in the scam were primary school teachers and a few in the Primary Health Care Department”.
The Lapai local government Chairman further accused the State Universal Basica Education Board NSUBEB of not promptly paying teachers salaries even after early remittance from various local government councils to the Board.
“The August salary remitted to the Board which the management initially denied receiving was paid after several weeks of outcry by teachers”.
” NSUBEB should be probed by the state government because we discovered that the organization spends salaries of teachers to service its debts instead of paying the workers at the right time,” Jantabo said.
The Local government embarked on the staff auditing following the partial autonomy granted to councils which has created paucity of funds in carrying out activities of some Local government in the state including payment of staff salaries as and when due.
Confidence Okwuchi
