The Niger state government has sacked 80 civil servants over alleged fraud.

Speaking with journalists on Thursday, in Minna, the state capital, Salamatu Abubakar, the state’s head of service, said the affected workers fraudulently paid themselves salaries above their level.

She said the fraud was discovered during the recent verification exercise for all civil servants.

Abubakar said some of the sharp practices discovered was an office messenger receiving the salary of a high court judge and a fake commissioner of agriculture getting salaries for the office for two years.

The head of service said the suspects were from different agencies and ministries, and that the health services management board had most culprits.

Other ministries and institutions affected were schools of nursing and health technology, primary health care development agency, ministries of health, education, judiciary and school of midwifery.

Haruna Dukku, the state commissioner of agriculture, said he would have been mistaken to be the one earning double salaries if not for the discovery.

“Somebody has been collecting the salary of the commissioner for agriculture in the last two years,” he said.

“The person makes it to look as if I am collecting double salary. What will I say if at the end of my tenure, the EFCC comes knocking and this thing has not been discovered before then?”

Earlier in the month, the verification exercise committee uncovered a senior civil servant who smuggled his brother’s name into the state’s payroll and received salaries for 11 years.

In June, the Niger state government discovered monthly payment of over N672 million as salaries to ghost workers in the civil service.

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