NIGERIA (Kwara) – A total of 399 “ghost workers” were discovered on the payroll of the  Irepodun Local Government Council in Kwara State, Nigeria.

This was disclosed yesterday in a statement by the council’s Chairman, Luqman Owolewa, in Omu-Aran, headquarters of the council, adding that an audit committee which would scrutinize the council’s pay system would soon be set up in order to fish out more “ghost workers” and correct other anomalies embedded in the council’s pay process.

“When I assumed duty in November, I was surprised at the few number of workers reporting for duty and this prompted my undertaking a personal assessment to know what was wrong.

“I immediately ordered the stoppage of the salaries of those workers we could not identify physically.

“It was there that we discovered lots of discrepancies in the council’s past employment processes and we found out that only 500 of the 839 workers of the council were genuine staff members.’’

Mr. Owolewa said N2.5 million was now saved monthly following the process embarked upon to regularise the pay system.