C' River: Two Arrested Over Fake Employment Letters
...Suspects Allegedly Sold Job Slots for ₦600,000
By Judex Okoro
The Task Force of the Cross River Local Government Service Commission has arrested two suspects for allegedly issuing fake employment letters to unsuspecting job seekers.
The arrests followed several complaints from members of the public that fraud syndicates, posing as agents of the commission, were extorting money from applicants seeking employment into the local government service.
Investigations revealed that the fraudsters were demanding between ₦300,000 and ₦600,000 per employment slot, particularly targeting job seekers in the central and northern senatorial districts of the state.
To curb the menace, the commission set up a Task Force which successfully apprehended two suspects identified as David Ofuka and Ushie Joseph Egba.
Ofuka was detained at Afokang but later granted bail by High Court 1 on Tuesday, with his case scheduled to come up on September 8. Egba is currently being held at the State Housing Police Station, Calabar, where he is undergoing interrogation after being caught with a forged employment letter bearing the falsified signature of the commission’s Permanent Secretary.
Speaking with journalists in Calabar, the Permanent Secretary and leader of the Task Force, Mr. Samuel Egban, confirmed that the suspects were in possession of fake employment letters purportedly issued by the commission. He stressed that the syndicate was out to tarnish the image of the commission at a time when the state government is carrying out a historic recruitment drive across the 18 local government areas.
Egban noted that the suspects had been handed over to the police for further investigation and possible prosecution.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Darlington Eyo, disclosed that in the past year alone, about 4,000 workers have been recruited into the councils. He further revealed that 800 ghost workers had also been uncovered in the payroll system.
According to him, the commission inherited a depleted workforce of about 9,000 staff, but with the new intake, efforts are ongoing to fill remaining vacancies. He added that the mass recruitment exercise, approved by Governor Bassey Otu under his “People First” mantra, is the first of its kind in 37 years.
