Nigeria

Borno state government uncovers 22,556 ghost teachers, LG workers

Thursday, December 24, 2020 at 7:50 PM by Oluwatobi Bolashodun

- Following two verification exercises, not less than 22,556 ghost workers have been uncovered in Borno state

- The ghost workers are made up of 7,794 teachers and 14,762 local government staff

- This was disclosed in separate reports by the committee on local government staff verification

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The Governor Babagana Umara Zulum-led administration has uncovered 22,556 ghost workers comprising of teachers and local government workers after two simultaneous verification exercises.

In a report by Daily Trust, the separate exercises which were ordered by the state governor showed 14,762 ghost workers in the local government pay system and 7,794 ghost teachers.

The committee on local government staff verification, chaired by Senator Kaka Malam Yale, and another on primary school teachers chaired by Dr Shettima Kullima disclosed this in separate reports presented to Zulum.

Borno state government uncovers 22,556 ghost teachers, LG workers — Borno state uncovers 22,556 ghost teachers, local government workers after verification exercise. Photo credit: @ProfZulum
Source: Twitter

According to the data presented, a total figure of over N420m made up from N183.6m recovered in bogus teachers' salary and N237m in ghost local government staff was saved.

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Before the verification exercise, Dr Kullima explained that the total number of primary school teachers in the 27 local government areas was 26,450, and 2,204 did not appear before the committee.

Senator Yale, who chaired the committee for local government staff verification, said the number of staff dropped from 71,568 to 56,806.

In his reaction, Zulum expressed gratitude to members of the committee, adding that the verification exercise was taken to make the local government a veritable tool for local transformation.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that Governor Kayode Fayemi-led government in Ekiti state has uncovered the payment of N20 million monthly as salary for 362 ghost workers in local governments.

This was disclosed by the commissioner for local government and community development, Prof. Adio Folayan, while presenting a state staff verification committee report to Governor Fayemi in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday, November 3.

The committee was set up by the government to audit the local government staff towards identifying those who are genuine or fake workers.