Niger State Government has assured genuine political appointees in the state of the payment of their salaries.
Commissioner for Information and strategy, Hon Binta Mamman made this assertion in a statement in Minna,saying that the payment of their salaries will be done after their ongoing screening exercise which, according to her, is compulsory for all the political appointees under the present Administration in the state led by Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago.
The commissioner said the screening exercise of political appointees in the state, which is ongoing, was to authenticate genuine political appointees of the government which she said included the commissioners, senior special Advisers, special Advisers, Assistant special Advisers and Coordinators, among others
Mamman stated that the moves by the state government to constitute a committee for the screening of all the political appointees made by Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago led Administration was informed following reported cases of the discovery of fake political appointment letters forged by some yet-to-be identified persons until the ongoing screening exercise is completed with a view to identifying the genuine ones which according to her revealed that a total of 4,000 political appointees were the genuine ones appointed by the present administration in the state.
The government ,she said made such appointment to carry everyone along as a way of reducing unemployment across the state, but unknown to the government whose intention was to better the lots of the people in the state, the reverse was the case with fake political appointments causing the government to commit huge some of monies for the payment of these appointees that is draining government treasury to the tune of N600million, funds that will be channelled to other meaningful developmental purposes that will impact the livelihoods of citizens of the state.
It was however gathered that most of the political appointees in the state were yet to receive their September 2024 salaries due to the discovery of these fake and forged political appointment letters by the government, which is determined to get rid of such fake appointees from the payroll of the state government.
Recall that some of these political appointees staged a protest at the Government House, Minna few days ago over the delay in the payment of their salaries, which according to findings, will not be possible until the genuine political appointees are screened, authenticated and identified by the screening committee.
