Over 1,000 culprits were said to have been discovered in one ministry while 500 others found in other ministries, departments and agencies during a service-wide verification exercise will be delisted from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System.

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, disclosed this while speaking at the ‘National Policy Dialogue on Entrenching Transparency in Public Office Recruitment in Nigeria,’ organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, in Abuja on Tuesday.

The programme was attended by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, the Provost, Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria, Prof Olatunde Babawale, Prof Isaac Obasi and other dignitaries.

The HoS explained that her administration has taken decisive steps to nip in the bud the alarming sharp practices and acts of impunity being perpetrated on the IPPIS, as well as to purge the system of all infiltrations.

She stated, “It would be recalled that in March last year, the office informed of the detection of fake letters of employment presented in some ministries. For instance, in the past year, in one ministry alone, over 1,000 individuals bearing fake letters of appointment were detected.

“In the light of the aforementioned, it is disheartening to point out that the office recently received a report from the Federal Civil Service Commission forwarding the names of over 500 persons in various MDAs in possession of fake letters of appointment and which are to be delisted from the IPPIS platform.

“Similarly, following the outcome of the Service-Wide Verification Exercise for officers recruited from 2013 – 2020, the Federal Civil Service Commission has also requested the suspension of the salaries of over 3,000 officers across the MDAs who failed to appear for the exercise pending further clearance.”

According to her, the government’s effort to stop financial leakages in the civil service had created a gap leading to a series of implementation issues, adding that as of March 2022, over 380,000 officers had been captured on the IPPIS payroll comprising 66,000 and 320,000 for core and non-core MDAs, respectively.

Yemi-Esan further said that her office is carrying out a mop-up exercise in the core and non-core MDAs which would be rounded off in September.

Abubakar is the Deputy Commissioner, Technical, Oba takes charge of Finance and Administration (F&A) in the Commission.

This was contained in a statement issued by NAICOM’s Head, Commissioner for Insurance Directorate, Rasaaq Salami on Monday.

According to him, both appointments are effective from July 17th, 2020 for an initial tenure of five years.

Until his appointment, Abubakar had worked as Executive Director of Operations and Training at Jaiz Takaful Insurance Plc.

He is a Fellow of both Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) and Chartered Insurance Institute of London as well as Associate Member of the Nigeria Institute of Management (AMNIM).

The CSOs noted that the appointment of only northerners as FCT ministers since 1979 to date was “an act of injustice” while recalling that the only non-northerner that occupied the position was Mobolaji Adeogun from 1976 to 1979.

Leader of the coalition and President, Excellent Achievers Movement, Solomon Lenu, told newsmen in Port Harcourt on Monday that the FCT remained the capital of Nigeria and not the capital of the North.

Lenu explained that the demand for a non-northerner to be appointed as the minister of FCT was in line with the administration’s change agenda and a call for demonstration of integrity for which President Buhari was voted into power.

Lenu argued that “this call is necessitated by the constitutional need to create more cohesion in the country and to appeal to those who feel marginalised and to douse the tension of secession already heightened across all regions of the country.

“This singular demand, if granted, will quell the call for separation to a reasonable minimum, while the government works on other modalities to bring about unity that is necessary for the growth and development of this country.”