Government official in police custody for collecting 300 workers’ monthly salaries in Bayelsa
An official of the local government has been arrested by the Governor of Bayelsa state Seriake Dickson for allegedly collecting the salaries of 300 persons every month.
The revelation was made on Monday by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson during the commencement of a town hall meeting on civil service reforms in the Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state.
“Recently, Governor Seriake Dickson had to order the arrest of an official of a council. He (the official) was collecting salaries of 300 people. Yearly, the officer fraudulently receives hundreds of millions of Naira,” Daniel Iworiso-Markson said.
“That is in just one LGA and there are many places like that in the state. Some people are employed in the civil service today, yet there is no document in their files. Instead, they were employed with the affidavit. The same people who do not have any documents and qualifications are collecting salaries of Grade Level 14 workers and above.
“At the Bayelsa State Transport Company, you find a situation whereby you have about 180 drivers, but there are only five or six vehicles for them to drive. You can see the level of rot in the system. So, if we must be sincere to ourselves, we must all agree to join hands with the government to clean the mess in the system.”
Iworiso-Markson reiterated that the reform had come to stay, insisting that the people of Bayelsa must collectively redeem the state from collapse.
