How We Tackled Employment Racketeering – Lai Mohammed

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The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has revealed how he addressed the challenge of employment racketeers in his ministry and parastatal agencies.

Addressing members of Senate Committee on Culture and Tourism on oversight to his ministry on Thursday in Abuja, the minister said the racketeers swindled many unsuspected job seekers, promising t give them phantom jobs.

“When I came in, we were able to uncover a number of cartels engaging in unlawful employment.

“They gave bank account details which their victims paid huge sum of money into and after the payment they issued them with letters of employment.

“They even camped some of them in hotels for capturing into Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS)

“In fact, in a particular organisation, a level 17 Officer was involved in this racketeering, but unfortunately he is late now.

“When we discovered this we swung into action to get to the bottom of this and get some of them arrested.

“We are still on it and even some them have taken us to court,’’ he said.

Mohammed said that the ministry is committed to fighting the challenge of ghost workers and assured of bringing the perpetrators to book.

He said he had directed all the parastatal agencies under the ministries to submit their nominal rolls and anyone that failed to do so would have itself to blame for non-payment of its workers’ salaries from January 2017.