A staff verification exercise in the Borno State has revealed that it was padded with names of babies, Governor Babagana Zulum said yesterday.
Zulum said the payroll of Shani Local Government Area contained some names of babies.
The money so paid,including salaries and allowances went into the pockets of corrupt officials, he said.
The governor spoke at the Menwara Cultural Festival in Shani town.
The staff verification, he said, was designed to sanitize the civil service by removing the names of ghost employees from the payrolls .
He said: “at the end of the verification exercise, names of babies were found in the payrolls while N19 million was paid to fake employees in Shani Local Government Area monthly.
“ It was discovered that one family alone has 300 fake employees and if this trend continues, I am afraid, Shani LGA may not be able to pay the monthly salaries of its employees, in future.”
Some people in the area however protested the action of the government on the verification.
Zulum said he had met with the Emir of Shani, Alhaji Muhammad Nasiru Mailafiya and other stakeholders over the protest and directed the Commissioner of Local Government and Emirate Affairs, Sugum Mai Mele to take a fresh look at the verification exercise and reabsorb those with genuine cases.
The governor later shared dry season farming inputs to 1,750 farmers in Shani, Bayo and Hawul LGAs.
