Kogi govt tasks judiciary workers on biometric capturing, table payment

The Kogi State government has appealed to striking judicial staff in the state to come out for a pay parade and biometric data capturing so as to enable it have an accurate database of civil servants in the state for ease of salary payments.

Secretary to the Kogi State Government, Dr (Mrs) Ayoade Folashade Arike, who made the appeal at a press conference in Lokoja, explained that the pay parade exercise was not aimed at witch-hunting any arm of government, but to tackle the incessant increase in the monthly wage bill of the state .

“This administration inherited a heavy wage bill from previous administrations which prompted Governor Yahaya Bello to organise a staff screening exercise, and after the exercise, no fewer than 8,000 ghost workers were detected which was supposed to deplete the wage bill but instead, the monthly salaries of workers at the state and the local government areas continue to increase,” she said.

She stated that the last pay parade exercise was successful adding that over 400 cheques were unclaimed “as it became evident that the owners were not genuine staff of the state.”

According to her , the table payment embarked upon by the government in August 2018 revealed so many atrocities, saying that many workers were found to be taking more than their legitimate earnings.

She, therefore, called on the judiciary staff to support the other arms of government to move the state forward, assuring that the issue of non-payment of salary would soon be a thing of the past.