Fake employment syndicate smashed in Bauchi

Bauchi State government says it has arrested 10 civil servants who issued fake employment letters to 120 applicants in the state.

The syndicate had duped the applicants of over N3.2 million, the State Head of Service, Abubakar Ma’aji, said while parading the suspects.

According to him, the 10 civil servants serve in the state ministries of health and works.

Ma’aji added that the fake appointment letters into various positions in the two ministries were issued between 2017 and 2019.

He explained that the syndicate capitalised on the appointment window approved by former governor, Muhammed Abubakar, for absorption of 1149 medical students into the health sector.

Ma’aji said the activities of the suspects were blown open following public outcry that in spite of a government embargo on employment, they had continued to recruit personnel under the guise of “Replacement”.

“I then directed all heads of MDAS to investigate the matter and based on that the state ministries of Health and Works uncovered the said syndicate.

“The syndicate even applied and obtained Personal Sub-head Numbers (PSN) from the treasury department for the fake appointments, but were discovered to be same with some of the genuine students that were employed by the government.

“It was discovered that the names of those given fake appointment letters were not in the government approved lists, hence a committee was setup under one Ibrahim Gambaki, director of finance and administration in the ministry of health to further investigate the matter,” he said.