Two arrested for impersonating workers in Ekiti

Government of Ekiti state has arrested two persons who have been parading themselves as workers in the state during the ongoing biometric validation exercise.

The two individuals; Omotade Samuel (27) and Akinbode Fatade(28) were nabbed at the state data centre in Ado-Ekiti on Friday.

Samuel confessed that he had been impersonating his late father (Omotade, 53) at Aramoko Local Government Council since 2012, while Fatade disclosed he is impersonating his ‘ailing’ father at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Oke-Mesi since 2018.

Samuel said, “I live in Ibadan but come to Ado-Ekiti monthly to impersonate my late father and claim his salary. I have been doing this since October 2018 and while we were invited here for biometric verification, it didn’t occur to me that I will be caught.”

“The Headmaster of St. Paul’s African Primary School Oke-Mesi, Mr Igbalajobi assisted me to work in place of my father who has been absent from work for months,” Fatade confessed.

ALSO READ: Sultan calls on northern government to compel parents on girl-child education

Speaking on the development, Commissioner for Finance, Mr Dapo Kolawole said that Ekiti State Government has taken a step further in ensuring accountability and transparency in the civil service system by introducing the Biometric Validation exercise.

According to him, “When death occurs in the Civil Service, a declaration is made to announce vacancy to fill up the space to avoid cases such as impersonation. Through the biometric exercise, the fingerprints of these suspects did not match with that of their parents whom they have impersonated. The Head Teacher at St. Paul’s school in Oke-Mesi and the senior staff at Aramoko Local Government Council have aided this criminal activity so they can benefit from the vacant space undeclared.

“When we commenced the biometric exercise at the local government levels, some civil servants were not verified because they were not in attendance and so we invited them to the Data Centre for verification where we discovered some of them have issues of impersonation and substitution,” he said.

Kolawole described the act as illegal and fraudulent while affirming that the government would ensure the system was purged of all forms of illegalities.

“The government will further investigate this matter beyond this discovery and will ensure that all perpetrators are brought to book through due investigations,” he said.