In an effort to clean up this system for efficient civil service delivery, the Niger State Government has dismissed no fewer than 374 civil servants, among them a medical doctor, from the state civil service for certificate racketeering and violation of civil service rules

The state government has also forcibly retired 380 civil servants, among them Permanent Secretaries, for their involvement in fraudulent acts of alteration of their date of birth or first appointment.

The Chairman of the Niger State Civil Service Commission, Alhaji Shehu Yusuf Galadiman, who disclosed this while briefing reporters in Minna on Tuesday on the activities of the commission in the last six years, said while 46 were dismissed for violating the extant rules, 328 personnel were dismissed from the service ‘after the commission undertook a forensic examination of all certificates pledged by the personnel during their interviews for prospective jobs.’

Alhaji Shehu Galadiman, while giving the breakdown of those dismissed for ‘violating extant rules’ said 31 of them are from the state pension board, five accountants, two health workers and four ICT personnel but could not disclose their ministries.

The chairman pointed out that in addition to the 380 civil servants that were forced out of service, a total of 5,258 others who have completed the mandatory 35 years of service or attained 60 years, voluntarily left the service, adding that ‘the total of retirements from both conventional and unconventional are 5,638.’

However, to fill in the gaps, the chairman stated that a total of 1,383 vacancies have been filled following the employment of 1,133 youths and another 250 graduates and have all been deployed to various ministries agencies and departments in line with their qualifications to fill the existing vacancies in those MDAs.

According to him, ‘the commission deployed 250 civil servants who have the prerequisite qualifications to lecture in the state-owned tertiary institutions from their MDAs to beef up the ratio of lecturers per student in line with the requirements for various accreditation boards or commission.’

He also disclosed that no fewer than 6,835 civil servants in various cadres have been promoted to the next grade level in the last six years by the commission, stressing that ‘the commission has now considered it very crucial and important to introduce promotion examinations in order to ensure only capable and qualified personnel gain promotion from one level to another.’