Workers in Kogi State have expressed dismay on a story credited to the state’s Head of Service, Mrs Deborah Ogunmola, in which she was quoted to have said that she had uncovered 300 ghost workers allegedly planted by senior civil servants in the state.
A statement by the chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state, Comrade Onuh Edoka, and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart, Comrade Ranti Ojo, said the allegation was “unfortunate given the fact that the state government had conducted staff verification exercise that lasted for over three years.”
The Head of Service, Mrs Ogunmola had alleged that over 300 uncleared workers of Kogi State civil service made their way back to the payroll of the state civil service through the help of top civil servants.
The labour in its statement issued on Friday noted that aside the normal verification exercise that lasted three years, the government also organised pay parade for all workers and had their biometric data captured.
The statement therefore challenged the Head of Service to publish the names of the ghost workers, their MDAs and the senior civil servants involved in the alleged criminal activities.
The labour leaders said the government’s statements since after the screening indicated that the payment system had been made watertight and only the governor could order the inclusion of any names in the payroll and wondered how senior civil servants could gain access to the payroll again
They said until the identities of those involved are revealed, the organised labour would view the action of the Head of Service as a deliberate attempt to rubbish what the state government had achieved from the screening exercise and thereby throw the entire workforce into another round of screening exercise again.
The statement advised the state government not to listen to any advice that could set it against workers, noting that the Head of Service outburst was a coup against workers aimed at denying them their minimum wage.
It said the government must hasten the implementation of the minimum wage to the workforce as being done in other states.