Rivers government uncovers over 7000 ghost workers

The Rivers State Government says over forty nine thousand civil servants were captured in the just concluded biometric verification exercise.

The state Head of Service, Rufus Godwin made the disclosure on a radio programme monitored in Port Harcourt.

The Head of Service said the staff strength in the state civil service was initially put at over fifty seven thousand, adding that the difference after the verification exercise was over seven thousand.

He said those who were not captured in the exercise were not genuine civil servants.

Godwins also disclosed that the state government had commenced the compilation of the list of those who were involved in the deal, stressing that they would be prosecuted.

“We have captured over 49,000 civil servants and they have all been paid. Those who have not been paid are those people who are underlined.

“If at all they are civil servants, they would have come to be captured. We are inundated by complaints from people everyday, who claim they are sick, those who asked if they could be captured by proxy.

“There are different tendencies that this exercise has revealed from civil servants. By this omission, some of them have caused their non-payment of salary. We do not owe anybody. We have paid salaries up to June,” he said.