NIMC dismisses 3,000 staff over false documentations, poor ethics

By The Citizen

The Senate yesterday endorsed the sack of 3,000 National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) workers.

This directive followed the consideration and adoption of the report of the Joint Committee that considered the petition by 4,029 disengaged members of staff.

The committee noted that some of the dismissed workers falsified their records. Others were dismissed for being absent from work for months.

It said that those that were not satisfied with their dismissal could seek redress in a law court as most of the allegations centered on criminality.

The lawmakers agreed that each disengaged person be paid one year salary as take-home severance allowance using the same formula that produced the earlier approved package. The package will now stand at N621,953.00 as the lowest and N1,441,735.60 as the highest.

The NIMC management, according to the committee, said that the number of disengaged officials was 3,099 in the first instance and not 4,099 as stated by the petitioners. The staff strength currently is 1,891.

The committee, according to the management of the commission said the disengagement was done across the 36 states and Abuja and no state was specially targeted in the exercise.

The committee said it found out that the Governing Board of NIMC approved HND and B.Sc as the new minimum entry level qualifications for the Commission.

It said that 'the economic and security situation in the country make the disengagement of over 3,000 employees from one establishment inadvisable, hence the secretariat of the Committee undertook a rigorous certificate verification and screening where the certificate of employees were examined.'

It said that while 218 persons listed their names as having additional qualifications, 96 were found to have actually acquired the new minimum qualifications of HND and B.Sc as at the end of last year.

The upper chamber also directed NIMC to reinstate 96 disengaged officials of the commission.