FG sacks top civil servants for extorting N.4m each from 400 job seekers

Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour Nigeria

Some top officials of the civil service have been dismissed by the Federal Government for extorting money from 400 applicants and offering them employment illegally.

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Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the disclosure on Saturday in Lagos State during a meeting with some selected On-Air-Personalities.

The meeting was part of the minister`s five-day consultations with critical stakeholders in the media industry.

Mohammed said that the affected officers were on Grade Level 17 in one of the parastatal agencies in the ministry.

He said that the officers had included the names of the applicants in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel System (IPPIS) before the fraud was discovered.

"The first scandal I met in one of the parastatal agencies when I assumed office was the illegal employment of 400 people. This scandal started with very senior officers up to level 17 in that department.

"They sent out letters and text messages asking people to apply for jobs for a fee of N400,000 and they were given letters of employment.

"They did not stop there. They invited these people to go and be captured on the IPPIS and they even took cameras to hotels to get them captured. At the end of the day, the bubble burst.

"One of the victims told these officials, you cannot take my money and still disengage me. I have a valid letter. That is how we got to know that there is a dedicated account these people pay to.

"Of course, we dismissed these officials and we even handed them over to the Police," the minster said.

Mohammed said that the incident showed how faulty the IPPIS was and how it had been compromised by unscrupulous elements.

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He said that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was doing all it could to make the IPPIS tamper-proof and protect it from people who might want to load ghost workers on it.