TheCable

At least 9,000 employees in the Akwa Ibom state civil service are to be prosecuted for alleged fraudulent drawing of salaries from more than one pay point in the state.

Udom Emmanuel, governor of the state, disclosed this to reporters on Monday in Uyo, the state capital.

Emmanuel said the massive fraud was uncovered in the preliminary bio-metric exercise recently conducted by the office of the state accountant-general.

“It is shocking to know that a section of the employees in the state are drawing salaries from more than a pay point,” he said.

“We have given the affected employees and those yet to be uncovered, the option to refund the salaries they have fraudulently taken or be prosecuted.”

The governor directed the permanent secretaries in ministries, department and agencies to commence finger print verification of all employees.

He said employees who failed to participate in the verification exercise would have their names deleted from the automated salary paying system and nominal roll.

He noted that more than 1,000 employees were yet to comply with the directive.

Udom reiterated his administration’s commitment to making discipline and zero tolerance for corruption its watchwords.