267 WORKERS, OVER 2,000 OTHERS FORGED CERTIFICATES, AGES IN EKITI

A total of 267 workers in the Ekiti State Public Service have been
discovered to have forged their certificates, while over 2,000 workers
falsified their ages.

The affected workers, who were mostly civil servants, secondary school
teachers and health workers between grade level two and 14 allegedly
forged Secondary School certificates. Appointment of 93 of them was
terminated by the State Civil Service Commission last week while 29
were dismissed. 90 teachers and 30 health workers were affected among
others.

However, results of 27 workers were confirmed correct by the West
African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examinations Council
(NECO) while two of the indicted workers had retired before the
completion of the verification exercise.

The total monthly salary of the affected workers as N6, 838,758 while
the annual salary is N82, 065,096.

It should be recalled that about a year ago, it was suspected that
there were a lot of irregularities in the payment of salaries in the
state public service, hence the setting up of a committee headed by
the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Mr. Bunmi Famosaya to
verify the certificates of public servants in the State.

The committee, which verified Secondary School Certificates of 296
workers, submitted its report last year December. Upon further
verification, 27 of them were cleared by WAEC and NECO.
Speaking on the development, Chairman of the State Civil Service
Commission, Chief Kunle Ogunlade said the State Government decision to
ease out the affected workers was part of the sanitization process,
adding that; “the case of over 2,000 workers discovered to have
serially altered and falsified their ages would also be considered
soon.”

Speaking further; Ogunlade, who lamented the rots in the public
service said; “Ekiti is known as a fountain of knowledge but it is
sickening that our people are forging certificates as low as that of
secondary school. Even more worrisome is the fact that some people
would want the government to ignore all these criminal and immoral
acts in the name of politics.”

Also, Wale Ojo-Lanre, Chief Press Secretary to the State Governor, in
his reaction said; “We have also discovered that over 2,000 workers
serially altered and falsified their ages. The government simply asked
the workers to bring their First School Leaving Certificate and at a
bench mark of 91/2 years as age for leaving Primary School, there are
still workers who started school before they were born.

“For instance, some people were discovered to have finished primary
school when they were three year old! Simply put, it is like a case of
somebody who claimed to have been born in say 1960 finished primary
school in 1963!”