Shocking! 22 Ghost Primary Schools Uncovered in Niger State...See Details

 

 

The evidence of years of payment of salaries to ‘teachers’ of 22 ghost primary schools has been uncovered in the Chanchaga local government area of Niger State.

 

Daily Trust reports that an ongoing biometric verification exercise by the council which said the 22 schools could not be found anywhere around the council area, indicated that the payment of salaries to the ghost teachers, numbering 24, had gone on for the last 10 years.

 

The chairman of the council, Hon. Yusuf Inuwa Fuka, who shed further light on the development while addressing journalists, said the council had over 4,000 workers comprising over 2,700 in the education sector and 1,600 other staff.

 

Fuka said the verification was not aimed at witch-hunting anyone but to stop undue payments and conserve funds for development projects.

 

He said that last month the council received N74 million instead of the N177 million needed monthly for the payment of staff salary.

 

He said the situation was sad as the council management could not pay salaries even as they were elected not to pay salaries alone, and announced that a committee had been set up to raise Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and ensure its judicious utilization.

 

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Alhaji Alhassan Bawa Niworu, has denied collaborating with the Education Secretary (ES) of the Chanchaga LGA to frustrate the ongoing screening as alleged by the council.

 

Niworu stated that the board was in full support of the verification exercise, adding that the board initiated the format used by the 25 local government areas in fishing out ghost workers, which he said was yielding results.

 

He explained that it was the Ministry of Local Government that prepared vouchers and not council education secretaries.