More than 9,720 ghost workers have been discovered in the payroll of Kogi state government, says a committee on staff screening and verification in Kogi.

This was disclosed by the chairman of the committee, Jerry Agbaji, who made the announcement during a meeting with stakeholders in Lokoja, the Kogi state capital.

Agbaji noted that the 9,720 were civil servants who failed to come for the screening. He broke it down into: 4,060 state government workers, 3,054 teachers and 2,936 local government workers.

Speaking on the issue, the state Auditor-General in charge of local governments, Ahmed Ododo, said that 40 names were smuggled into the screening report.

Ododo, who was the chairman of a committee that vetted the screening report, said that the discovery showed there are people who have intentions of destroying the efforts of the government.

He said, “Also in Kogi State University, there was a case of double employment where a man filled two forms signed by him and he was cleared. He is on the staff of the university and also on the staff of its teaching hospital. This man draws salaries amounting to N560,000 each from the two places.”

He noted that over 1,200 non-existing workers were in the payroll of the Kogi state polytechnic.