A seven-man committee has been set up by? Niger State House of Assembly to investigate the circumstances surrounding? the withholding of some? local government workers’ salaries for over six months following the recent screening exercise embarked upon by government to fish out ghost workers.
?The speaker, Hon. Mohammed Tsowa Gamunu, said yesterday that the committee, headed by Hon. Jibrin Akwanu, representing Agaie constituency, had the mandate to investigate the circumstances that transformed civil servants that had worked for over 30 years to ghost workers.
?Gamunu explained that it was the responsibility of the state lawmakers to respond promptly to the plight of the people, as they were? crying over the hardship caused by the situation.
?He said, “I urge and encourage my colleagues to always pay adequate attention to issues that disturb the general public with a view to resolving them.”
He mandated the committee to summon the state commissioner of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Yusuf Tagwai, the state Head of Service, Mohammed Matene, the Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Uba Kuta, and the commissioner for Basic Education, Dr. Peter Sarkin, to the house to explain situation to the House.
?The decision of the House to install the committee followed the adoption of a motion on matters of urgent public interest moved by Hon. Mohammed Bala Farouk, representing Bida II constituency, in which he drew the attention of members to the plight of local government workers in the state.
?He explained that the majority of workers had been denied salaries for six months on account of a screening exercise which, he said, was dogged with controversies, saying that the entire 70 staff of the state College of Advanced Islamic Studies were declared ghost workers because their names were not captured in the machine used in the screening exercise, whereas some of them had worked for over 30 years.
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