The Kogi State Government has stopped paying the salaries of 231 workers in the state civil service over alleged failure to comply with the government directive to update their records.

The state’s Head of Service, Hannah Odiyo, made this known on Wednesday in Lokoja at the inauguration of the issuance of identity cards to the state’s workers.

Ms Odiyo said that the affected civil servants failed to comply with the government’s directive to update their records.

The HoS said that the salaries of the affected civil servants had been suspended since November 2023 till date.

Ms Odiyo explained that the exercise was carried out to further authenticate the updated staff records.

She explained that in May 2022, her office sent out an enclosed form (the biodata form) to all ministries, departments and agencies to be filled out by the civil servants and returned.

She emphasised that authentic data was required for adequate planning by the government, especially in a transition period the state was in.

“Although the biodata exercise revealed a lot of inadequacies on the part of the MDAs, a total of 231 staff have failed to show up for the updated records exercise. This has led to the suspension of their salaries since November 2023 to date. The question now is, where are they? Who are they? Are they ghosts?” she queried.

Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the Research Evaluation and Policy Analysis/Certificate Verification Department, Memunat Shuaib, commended the HoS for her proactiveness in ensuring the actualisation of the project.

On his part, the PS, Ministry of Information and Communications, Teddy Adegbola, congratulated the government for a landmark achievement in the history of the Kogi civil service.

The PS, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Modupe Andi, also applauded the office of the head of the civil service for a successful update exercise. 

(NAN)