Minimum wage: Zamfara discovers 199 ghost medical doctors

Gov. Bello Matawalle of Zamfara on Saturday said that a total of 199 ghost medical doctors were discovered in the payroll of the state government.

Matawalle disclosed during this in a chat with journalists in Maradun town, Maradun Local Government Area of the State.

The governor said the ghost workers were discovered during the recent workers’ verification exercise for the implementation of the N30,0000 new national minimum wage.

“We discovered that in a payroll, we have 280 medical doctors receiving salary monthly, but only 81 were genuine doctors while all the remaining 199 were ghost workers.

“This was among the major challenges that affected the full implementation of the N30,000 minimum wage for the workers in the state which commenced in Nov. 2022 under my administration.

“We are working with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and other stakeholders to address the problem,” Matawalle said.

He said that his administration was ready to ensure the smooth payment of workers’ salary as well as general improvement of workers’ welfare in the state.

“As I am speaking to you, I built 450 houses for the civil servants in the state and I will hand over the houses to the workers very soon.

On the challenges faced by some civil servants in the state, Matawalle maintained that the state government was not owing civil servants’ salary.

“I have paid all salaries of government workers in the state for the months of Nov. and Dec, 2022,” Matawalle insisted.

According to him, the challenges that resulted from the payment of the salary was a result of some errors from the various discoveries of the verification exercise.

“As I have met with the labour leadership and other stakeholders, very soon, all the challenges would be addressed,” Matawalle added.