{"id":176924,"date":"2025-08-30T17:29:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T16:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/rivers-verification-uncovers-thousands-of-ghost-workers"},"modified":"2025-08-30T18:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T17:57:14","slug":"rivers-verification-uncovers-thousands-of-ghost-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-verification-uncovers-thousands-of-ghost-workers","title":{"rendered":"Rivers Verification Uncovers Thousands of Ghost Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The recent civil servants and pensioners verification exercise in Rivers State has revealed a significant reduction in the number of civil servants and retirees on the state\u2019s payroll.<\/p>\n

According to official figures, only 37,703 staff were verified as genuine employees, compared to a previous record of over 43,000 civil servants in the state.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the verification confirmed 19,186 pensioners, against the earlier record of more than 25,500 retirees.<\/p>\n

This was disclosed by the Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Ibok-Ete Ibas, during a meeting with the leadership of labour unions in the state on Friday at the Government House, where he highlighted disparities uncovered in the verification exercise.<\/p>\n

Ibas explained that 2,004 local government pensioners were verified out of more than 2,600, while about 8,000 local government staff were confirmed across seven LGAs, including Obio\/Akpor, Bonny, Etche, and Degema.<\/p>\n

He gave a deadline of September 4, 2025, for the completion of all local government staff verification exercise, assuring that all necessary state resources would be deployed to meet the target.<\/p>\n

The Sole Administrator, who reiterated his zero-tolerance stance on corruption, noted that while efforts are ongoing, only arrears for March 2025 have so far been cleared due to challenges with the verified records.<\/p>\n

He further disclosed that an overpayment of N117 million was discovered in the March schedule, adding that the anomaly triggered an official investigation.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. The recent civil servants and pensioners verification exercise in Rivers State has revealed a significant reduction in the number of civil servants and retirees on the state\u2019s payroll. According to official figures, only 37,703 staff were verified as genuine employees, compared to a previous record of over 43,000 civil servants in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":176923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[254,421],"class_list":["post-176924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-nigeria","tag-rivers"],"yoast_head":"\nRivers Verification Uncovers Thousands of Ghost Workers - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The recent civil servants and pensioners verification exercise in Rivers State has revealed a significant reduction in t ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-verification-uncovers-thousands-of-ghost-workers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rivers Verification Uncovers Thousands of Ghost Workers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The recent civil servants and pensioners verification exercise in Rivers State has revealed a significant reduction in t ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-verification-uncovers-thousands-of-ghost-workers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-30T16:29:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-30T17:57:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1756564165.948742.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-verification-uncovers-thousands-of-ghost-workers#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-verification-uncovers-thousands-of-ghost-workers\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Rivers Verification Uncovers Thousands of Ghost Workers\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-30T16:29:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-30T17:57:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-verification-uncovers-thousands-of-ghost-workers\"},\"wordCount\":236,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-verification-uncovers-thousands-of-ghost-workers#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/08\/sm_1756564165.948742.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\",\"Rivers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-verification-uncovers-thousands-of-ghost-workers#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-verification-uncovers-thousands-of-ghost-workers\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/rivers-verification-uncovers-thousands-of-ghost-workers\",\"name\":\"Rivers Verification Uncovers Thousands of Ghost Workers - 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