Era of ghost workers in Anambra judiciary over – CJ

The Chief Judge of Anambra State, Justice Peter Umeadi, has said that the era of ghost workers in the state judiciary is over.

Umeadi stated this in a special court session organised to mark the commencement of a 2017/2018 legal year in the state.

He said the actual staff strength of the third arm of government has been ascertained, adding that the feat was achieved through a biometric verification exercise embarked upon in June this year.

He said the judiciary reached an agreement with its bankers to make available for it the conduct of a scientific, open and credible biometric exercise to ascertain the correct number of staff working in the judiciary.

“As I speak to you, there are no ghost workers in the judiciary of Anambra State, and at the last count with the state of the art appliances, a total of 2,140 staff were captured,” he said.

He said 42 other members of staff have not been accredited, but explained that the identified staff may have either left the job or travelled outside the country.

“These yet to be accredited persons could have pursued other endeavours; they could have married and followed their spouses elsewhere; they may have relocated both within and out of the shores of Nigeria. But we do not have ghost workers currently,” he stated.

The chief judge commended staff of the judiciary for being punctual at their duty posts and also abiding by instructions, saying that in the new year, the judiciary would intensify efforts in the training of staff so as to impart the tenets of professionalism.

He said the efforts of the staff of the judiciary also helped the state government in its internally generated revenue profile which culminated in the generation of about N140 million into the treasury of the state in just 10 months.

“The sum overshot the budget estimate and was collected within 10 months of between October 2016 and July 2017,” he said.

He said, “We have it on record that all the 27 high court judges and 62 magistrates of different cadre are equipped with highly rated law pavilion software.