Ondo to prosecute 25 civil servants for fraud

Twenty-five civil servants have been suspended on allegations of fraud and embezzlement in Ondo state.

One of them is said to have put his wife, who is not a civil servant, on paid  grade level 14.

Senior Special Assistant to Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu on Special Duties, Doyin Adebowale, disclosed this when he paraded the 25 civil servants in Akure, the Ondo state capital.

The workers were said to have been caught for various offences including stealing millions of naira, employment racketeering and using fictitious names in the pay roll of the state government to syphon money.

One of those suspended, a staff of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) was said to have stolen a total of N104m from the coffers of SUBEB.

Odebowale told newsmen that the suspended civil servants would be prosecuted and severely dealt with.

He explained that they were caught due to reforms carried out by the Head of Service,. Alex Aragbaye.

According to him, “We are here because of certain suspects the Governor directed that we prosecute. In the civil service there has been this stealing going on undetected. They do it in several ways especially through staff list.

“We have people that imputed fictitious figures into the payroll. When the new Head of Service got into office, he put in place certain reforms to make us know those in actual service.”