by Isi Esene

The Zamfara State House of Assembly has vowed to resist any attempt by the executive arm of government to lay off 7,000 ghost workers in the employ of the state civil service.

The ghost workers were identified in a recent progress report submitted to the government by the verification committee set up to determine the number of genuine members of the state civil service.

In its sitting on Friday, the State House of Assembly resolved to invite the chairman of the verification committee who is also the executive chairman of the state Civil Service Commission over the progress report submitted to the governor.

According to the Guardian Newspapers, the motion to oppose the planned mass sack was initiated by Aliyu Ango Kagara, representing Mafara 2 constituency and seconded by Umar Muazu, a member representing Maradun 1 constituency.

The Chairman of the committee established to oversee the verification exercise revealed that out of the 28,000 civil servants in the state, only 21,067 showed up for verification, he subsequently gave an ultimatum to the absent workers to consider themselves out of the state civil service if they fail to show up for verification by the end of the final exercise.

He said many of the workers have their names on the civil service payroll but do not actually exist. He attributed the problem to the indiscriminate recruitment exercise conducted by the past administration in the state which, according to him, left room for manipulation.

The state governor, Governor Abdul-Aziz Yari, while receiving the committee’s progress report, insisted that it intends to implement the report of the committee to the letter when the exercise is finally concluded.