Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State says an employee verification exercise in the state uncovered names of babies in the payroll of Shani Local Government Area.
The monthly salaries and allowances paid to fake employees including the babies were reportedly siphoned by corrupt officials, according to Daily Trust.
Zulum disclosed this at the Menwara Cultural Festival in Shani Town on Saturday.
The governor said the verification exercise was meant to sanitize the civil service by removing phony employees from the payrolls but people who are against it staged protests in Shani.
“Let me inform you that in the end of the verification exercise, names of babies were found in the payrolls while N19 million was paid to fake employees in Shani Local Government Area monthly. It was discovered that one family alone has 300 fake employees and if this trend continues, I am afraid, Shani LGA may not be able to pay the monthly salaries of its employees, in the future,” the governor said.
