No fewer than 9,258 “ghost workers” were uncovered in the 21 local councils of Kebbi State by the Verification Committee on Local Government Staff.
According to the state Chairman of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Alhaji Bello Barade, the figure included workers that failed to show up for clearance.
The NULGE boss said the exercise, conducted two months ago, had cleared 24,126 workers “as genuine staff of the councils.
He said: “The records of such workers were studied and they were cleared. The exercise was not aimed at witch-hunting any worker.”
Barade further disclosed that 12,830 of the workers verified “were beneficiaries of political patronage.”
“Such categories of staff would not be considered as workers due to the nature of their recruitment on political grounds, but they would continue to enjoy their salaries and allowances.”
The chairman, who also took in the verification exercise, said the committee had recommended the retraining of over 1,830 secondary school certificate holders, who were employed as teachers in various schools in the state.
He said such workers would be retained in the service after the retraining, adding that genuine workers who were unable to attend the screening exercise would be given another opportunity.
He had stated further that “the committee has also strongly recommended that all serious omissions be reviewed,”
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