Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State has directed that the 21 health workers in the state’s service, who were discovered to have forged their certificates be sanctioned.
The workers forged certificates were discovered following a staff verification exercise.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Communication and Strategy, Mallam Isa Gusau, revealed this in a statement in Maiduguri on Monday, adding that the verification exercise also uncovered 91 ghost staff and N23 million being wrongly spent monthly.
According to the statement, the Chairman of the verification committee, Dr. Joseph Jatau gave the details of the committee’s finding during the presentation of its report to Governor Zulum at the Governor’s Office Annex at the Musa Usman secretariat on Monday.
Dr Jatau explained that among those with fake certificates were nurses, other medical and support staff, adding that 91 ghost workers were discovered in the lists of health workers in the state, who had either resigned or withdrawn from service, but their salaries were still being paid in their names.
He similarly said the committee found that some dead, retired, and absconded staff were being consistently promoted, with salaries also paid in their names, explaining that the committee made 13 recommendations that would help reposition the health sector for optimal service delivery in the state.
“Anyone that fakes certificates in nursing and other medical courses is capable of killing people.
“Only God knows how many people they might have harmed or even killed. Honestly, we shouldn’t let this go, we should ensure appropriate actions are served to the culprits.
“I cannot be lenient on matters involving life and death. Importantly also, we have to employ measures to avert future occurrences”, Zulum was quoted to have said after receiving the committee’s report.
