As the list of alleged ghost workers in Bauchi State goes viral on social media, more and more are frowning at their inclusion on the list of workers on the government’s payroll when they do not or no longer work for the government.
Prof. Sani Malami says he is not a ghost worker.
Another writes: “In the last couple of days my very good friend Turaki Hassan the SA Media to RT. Hon. Yakubu Dogara has caused to be circulated a list of over 1,000 ghost workers who were allegedly on the payroll of the government of Bauchi State. As if that is not scandalous enough, to my astonishment, my own name appeared on the list as No.781 with date of employment 24 July 2015, BVN 22349004096 and account number 8014478467.
“This notice should therefore serve as a disclaimer, as I had left the services of the government of Bauchi State precisely on 29 May 2015 and I have no link whatsoever to the mentioned account and BVN number.
“I would also advice members of the public including our elder statesmen to critically scrutinize the list too, in order to avoid embarrassment, as I have discovered that among the names of innocent people used to execute this monumental fraud were those of HE Malam Isa Yuguda (No. 720) with date of birth 30-12-1899; Barr Muktar A Usman former Attorney General (No. 779), Prof Andrew Haruna Vice Chancellor (No. 777), HE Sagir Aminu Saleh (No.717) etc.
“Interestingly ALL the ghosts were being paid salaries into one bank account.
May God help our State – and thanks a million to Turaki Hassan for your excellence in investigative journalism!”.
List of Bauchi Ghost workers
Nigeria Everyday reports that last February at a campaign rally, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, flashed documents showing Bauchi State government had perpetrated mind-boggling fraud and theft reaching N400 billion in just three and half year.
In fact, a measure of “voodoo” is involved as one of 1,200 ghost workers that came on the government pay-roll, Bappale Adamu, was said to have been born in 1899, which is 120 years ago and started work with the Bauchi state government on July 24, 2015 and will retire from the service in 2023.
Dogara, then, challenged his Governor to consider a day in court if he thinks he has lied against him.
As a lawyer, he says, he is versed in law and would not level false allegations against anyone if he does not have evidence.
In Dass, headquarters of Dass local government area on Friday, Dogara showed the crowd of his constituents how hundreds of non-existent people were said to have been employed in 2015 shortly after Governor Abubakar took the reins of power.
The documents indicate that no fewer than 1,200 people were said to have been employed and added into the state’s payroll beginning from July 2015.
Another startling revelation showed that all the 1,200 workers, though have different names and dates of birth, have the same Bank Verification Number (BVN), meaning that their entire salary was being paid into one and same bank account under different names.
The salaries vary from N39,000 to N86,000.
The speaker also wondered how Bauchi State government monthly salary skyrocketed from N2.6 billion per month in May 2015 to N7 billion without recruitment of additional workers, especially as the governor had early in his administration, fired thousands of political appointees engaged by former governor Isa Yuguda.
He also accused the governor of diverting billions of local government funds in the last three and half years.
The Speaker also recalled how the governor chased away contractors renovating Dass Central Mosque but failed to renovate it after repeated promises. He revealed how he personally paid for the renovation of the mosque.
It would be recalled that the Bauchi state Government had owed workers more than one year salaries following series of verifications allegedly to remove ghost workers from the state’s payroll by the present administration at its inception in 2015. Shortly after, however, the monthly salary bill rose from N2.6 billion to about N7 billion.