50,000 ghost workers: FG under pressure to expose syndicate

> Afenifere queries why the federal government has refused to disclose the identity of the 11 civil servants behind the 50,000 ghost workers recently removed from government’s payroll

>The pan Yoruba socio-political organisation says it is alarmed that the government has granted the 11 civil servants who committed the crime anonymity

> The group says exposing the identities of the 11 officers involved in the fraud would remove the fear that there is a grand conspiracy to cover up the crime

Afenifere has urged the federal government to expose the identities of the 11 officers behind the 50,000 ghost workers recently removed from government’s payroll.

Afenifere has demanded that the federal government make public those behind the 50,000 ghost workers recently removed from government’s payroll.

The pan Yoruba socio-political organisation, in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Yinka Odumakin, queried why the government has refused to disclose the identity of the 11 civil servants behind the act, Daily Post reports.

The group said it was alarmed that the government has granted the 11 civil servants who committed this crime anonymity by shielded their identities from the public.

“The country lost about N143 billion as payments to these ghosts while they were in the employment of the Federal Government . And as to the action the government has taken on the matter, we were told that the names of the 11 civil servants who masterminded the act have been sent to the EFCC for prosecution .

“Yet this is the same country where politicians have been detained and charged to court over amount that pales into insignifiance compared to the N143billion involved here," the group said.

The group also raised concerns about a recent report that all the staff of the federal ministry of finance who were fingered in the 2016 budget padding scandal have been posted to the cash office of the ministry.

It said the exposing the identities of the 11 officers who have been fingered in the 50,000 ghost workers racket would remove the fear that there is a grand conspiracy to cover up this crime.

In some other news, Mariel Rae-Omoh has been appointed as the new acting director-general of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC).

Her appointment by the minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, as the acting DG of NTDC is with immediate effect.

She will take over from the former acting DG, Boniface Ebuka, who was appointed into the position last month following the sack of the former DG, Sally Uwechue-Mbanefo by the federal government.