The Federal Government has confirmed that it has commenced sacking workers with certificates from unaccredited private tertiary institutions in the Benin Republic and Togo.

The Federal Government workers that are being dismissed are those who graduated from the institutions from 2017 to date.

The spokesperson of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Segun Imohiosen, confirmed the development on Wednesday.

The government said the exercise is part of an effort to rid the country’s civil service of bad eggs.

Recall that in August, the Federal Government announced that only eight universities had been accredited to award degrees to Nigerians in Togo and the Benin Republic.

The development followed an undercover investigative report in which a Daily Nigerian journalist, Umar Audu, acquired a degree from a university in the Benin Republic in two months and used it to participate in the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, scheme.

Acting on the revelation, the Nigerian government banned the accreditation and evaluation of degrees from tertiary institutions in Benin Republic, Togo, and other foreign universities.

Consequently, the Federal Government set up an interministerial investigative committee on degree certificate milling to probe the activities of certificate racketeers.

Thereafter, the then Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, revealed that over 22,500 Nigerians obtained fake degree certificates from Benin Republic and Togo. He announced that such certificates would be cancelled.

It was gathered that some ministries, departments, and agencies, MDAs, such as the National Youth Services Corps, have commenced the implementation of the directive.

For instance, the NYSC Director of Information, Caroline Embu, confirmed that five members of staff had been sacked in line with the SGF’s directive.

She said, “Five members of staff were affected by the directive contained in the letter from the Office of the SGF.”

This comes weeks after former Nigerian senator, Shehu Sani, in November 2024, raised the alarm that the Federal Government had commenced sacking workers with unverified Benin Republic and Togo degrees.