The Cross River Local Government Service Commission said it has apprehended two members of a fake employment syndicate.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Permanent Secretary of the commission, Samuel Egban, disclosed this during a press briefing in Calabar on Tuesday.
|
|
Mr Egban said the suspects were caught with forged employment letters purportedly issued by the commission.
He explained that the duo were part of a syndicate attempting to tarnish the image of the commission amid the ongoing mass employment of council workers across the state.
|
|
|
|---|
The permanent secretary said the suspected fraudsters had been handed over to law enforcement agencies for further investigation.
“While one is due to appear in court on 8 September, the other suspect is detained at State Housing Police Station.
“We are using this (arrest) to sound a note of warning to others that we are after them if they don’t retrace their steps by stopping these illegal activities,” Mr Egban stated.
It will be recalled that the Chairperson of the commission, Darlington Eyo, had earlier disclosed that the commission received complaints from members of the public on the activities of employment racketeers.
According to him, some unsuspecting job seekers had been made to pay between N500,000 and N600,000 for employment into local government service in the state.
READ ALSO: Local council chairperson impeached in Cross River
He explained that the commission had made the process of employment so seamless that “even the child of nobody has the opportunity of being employed.”
Mr Eyo said while he would not rule out the possibility of people outside the commission posing as its agents, the commission had put measures in place to expose anyone patronising such fraudsters.
“The good thing is that anyone who patronises such a person will be fished out, as we have a system in place that will expose them,” he assured.
The chairperson further disclosed that the commission uncovered 800 ghost workers within the last one year.
