At least 50 civil servants out of 230 who were recently labeled as “ghost workers” by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) have reminded the chairman of the Civil Service Commission, Chief Emeka Ezeh, that they have not yet received their April salaries.
These affected staff, who work in various departments including the medical sector, were effectively removed from the payroll in April without any official explanation, apart from being suspected as ghost workers.
The day after they found out their April salaries had been withheld, members of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) and other affected staff unions began a warning strike to protest the action.
During the strike, many of the affected workers had their April salaries paid. However, around 50 others were still not paid due to what was described as technical problems in the payroll system.
Chief Emeka Ezeh, who leads the FCT Civil Service Commission, had promised last week that these unpaid salaries would be cleared before Friday of that week.
However, as of Wednesday, May 14, the unpaid workers said they still had not received any update or payment. Many of them, including health workers and staff from other departments, are appealing to the Commission’s chairman to speed up the payment process so they can meet their financial needs.
Last week, the chairman had formally apologized for withholding the April salaries of all 230 affected staff, including senior and managerial employees. They had been wrongly tagged as having absconded.
According to Chief Ezeh, the salary stoppage was the result of a human error made during efforts to clean up the payroll system.
“We were trying to clean up the payroll and in the process, some genuine staff were mistakenly affected. I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience. The affected salaries will be released between now and Friday.”
