NLC faults Kano's claim of 247 ghost workers, calls it 'false recovery'

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has faulted the uncovering of 247 ghost workers from the Kano State payroll, insisting the claim by the government was false.

Besides, the NLC wondered why the government had continued to sustain the flow of salaries into the accounts of the so-called ghost workers from the central payroll when the authorities are fully aware and notified of their status.

NLC Chairman, Kano State chapter, Comrade Inuwa Kabiru, faulted the submission of the government while speaking with journalists at Sani Abacha Stadium during the May Day celebration.

The state government recently declared that 247 workers who are either retired from the service or dead had continued to draw salaries from the payroll. The office of the Secretary to the State Government also announced the discovery of 240 workers who are receiving double salaries from the payroll.

But the NLC Chairman, who vehemently rejected the allegation, insisted that those assumed as ghost workers are retirees who have notified the government of their retirement from service.

He said the government has sustained their monthly salaries on the payroll instead of perfecting their enrollment on the pension scheme.

He said, “I can authoritatively tell you that the information is not true. Why? Because the Department of Salary of the local government wrote a memo that they have uncovered people who retired and their salaries are ongoing. The question is, why does the government continue to pay them salaries?

“It is in the local government that you will retire, send your own application for retirement, and after the date that you are leaving the service, it will not be processed. Stoppage of salary is a product of processing the retirement procedure.

“Nobody can stop your salary without having the necessary documents that you are exiting the service in so-so months. Those are the category of workers that are referred to as post-workers.

“So who is collecting their salaries? Your retirement was not processed and salary is coming. Will you hold your hand and say, ‘Let me take it back?’ Because you are still a worker.”