Politics
BAUCHI State Government, on Tuesday, said it had arrested 10 civil servants who issued fake employment letters to 120 applicants in the state.
The syndicate had duped the applicants of over N3.2 million, the State Head of Service, Alhaji Abubakar Ma’aji, said in Bauchi while parading the suspects. He said the 10 civil servants are serving in the state Ministry of Health and that of Works.
Ma’aji added that the fake appointment letters into various positions in the two ministries were issued between 2017 and 2019. He explained that the syndicate capitalized on the appointment window approved by former governor, Muhammed Abubakar, for the absorption of 1149 medical students into the health sector.
Ma’aji said the activities of the suspects were blown open following public outcry that in spite of a government embargo on employment, they had continued to recruit personnel under the guise of “Replacement”.
“I then directed all heads of MDAs to investigate the matter and based on that the state ministries of Health and Works uncovered the said syndicate.
“The syndicate even applied and obtained Personal Sub-head Numbers (PSN) from the treasury department for the fake appointments but were discovered to be the same with some of the genuine students that were employed by the government.
“It was discovered that the names of those given fake appointment letters were not in the government-approved lists, hence a committee was set up under one Ibrahim Gambaki, Director of Finance and Administration in the Ministry of Health to further investigate the matter,” he said.
“A former staff officer in the Ministry of Works, Samaila Tijanni and Hajiya Nafisa Salihu, as well as Mahmud Nasiru Illelah and seven others, were, therefore, queried and later transferred to various ministries and agencies to give room for proper investigation.”
He added that the issue was further exposed when some of those issued the fake employment protested over nonpayment of their monthly salaries.
“With this development, we have to revisit the issue and discovered that the members of the syndicate were more than the earlier discovered.
“We have gotten them and will query them, and forward it to Senior Management Committee and when processed, will forward the same to the office of the head of the service for necessary action,” he said.
One of the suspects, Samaila Tijjani, who had retired from the state civil service, confessed that he had facilitated the employment of 61 applicants through the process.
However, one of the victims, Huseeini Mamba, said that they followed due process, applied for the positions and were issued appointment letters which they believed were genuine at the time. (NAN)
– Mar. 24, 2020 @ 16:05 GMT |
Tags: Fake employment syndicate dupes applicants N3.2m in Bauchi
