Yahaya Bello-led Kogi State Government has announced the stoppage of the salaries of no fewer than 231 individuals working in the State Civil Service.
This is coming barely a week to end his 2-term tenure in office as the Kogi state governor.
According to a report, the State Head of Service Mrs. Hannah Odiyo, disclosed this in Lokoja while flagging off the issuance of State Identity Cards for workers, noting that the affected civil servants failed to comply with the Kogi State government’s directive to update their records.
Odiyo stated that salaries of the affected civil servants have been suspended since November 2023 till date, owing to the exercise, which was carried out in a bid to authenticate the updated staff records further.
She explained further that in May 2022, her office had earlier sent out an enclosed form (Bio Data Form) to all Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) to be filled by the civil servants and returned, while emphasising that authentic data was required for adequate planning by the government, especially in a transition period.
“Although the Bio Data exercise revealed a lot of inadequacies on the part of the MDAs, a total number of 231 staff have failed to show up for the updated records exercise, which has led to the suspension of their salaries since November 2023 till date.
“The question now is, where are they? Who are they? Are they ghosts?” She queried.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of Research Evaluation and Policy Analysis/Certificate Verification Department (REPA), Mrs Shuaib Memunat Dede, in a welcome address, commended the Head of Civil Service for her pro-activeness in ensuring the actualisation of the project.