Nigerian govt drags civil servants to court for inserting ‘ghosts’ into payroll

Nine persons were on Wednesday arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for allegedly being responsible for several ghost workers on Federal Government’s payroll.
The suspects are civil servants from government agencies like the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources; Environment Ministry and the Federal Civil Service Commission, FCSC.

The suspects are Usman Dayo, Osuntope Opeyemi, Johnson Adedokun, Ojeido Sylvanus, Oyebode Ayodeji, Florence Dada, Olaolu Dada, Blessing Ejeh and Aderibigbe Taiwo.
They are accused of allegedly creating and inserting various fictitious names into the payroll of the federal government for salaries and allowances without official consent, a situation that has caused the loss of several millions of Naira.
All nine were arraigned before Justice U. P. Kekemeke of Federal High Court, Apo, Abuja.
According to the Commission, the offence is in contravention of Section 289 of the Criminal Act.