Bayelsa govt worker earning salaries of 300 ghosts for years arrested

Bayelsa Governor Seriake Dickson has ordered the arrest of an official of a local government for collecting the salaries of 300 persons every month.

Commissioner for Information and Orientation Daniel Iworiso-Markson revealed this Monday during the commencement of a town hall meeting on civil service reforms in the Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state.

Although he did not give the name of the errant official, Iworiso-Markson said that the suspect is an account officer in a council in Bayelsa Central Senatorial District.

According ton him, the suspect was unmasked during staff verification in the LGA, after years of illicitly earning hundreds of millions of naira per annum.

“That is in just one LGA and there are many places like that in the state. Some people are employed in the civil service today, yet there is no document in their files,’ he said.

“Instead, they were employed with the affidavit. The same people who do not have any documents and qualifications are collecting salaries of Grade Level 14 workers and above.”

Citing the Bayelsa State Transport Company, the commissioner said one finds a situation where about 180 drivers are on the pay roll, but there are only five or six vehicles for them to drive.

“You can see the level of rot in the system. So, if we must be sincere to ourselves, we must all agree to join hands with the government to clean the mess in the system.”

He emphasised that the reform has come to stay, insisting that the people of Bayelsa must collectively redeem the state from collapse.

“Today, everywhere you go now, people talk of Bayelsa as a model. All these are because of the bold steps the Seriake Dickson-led administration has taken to redeem the state from payroll fraudsters and syndicates,” he said.