‘47 applicants defrauded of N51.8m in fake C’River LG recruitment’

Forty-seven applicants who sought employment in the controversial 2024/2025 Cross River State local government recruitment exercise were allegedly defrauded of N51.8 million, the chairman of the State Local Government Service Commission, Eyo Nsa Ekpo, has said.

Ekpo disclosed this on Monday during an interview on Sparkling FM’s Let’s Talk Nigeria programme monitored by our correspondent.

He said the applicants were allegedly cajoled, frightened and intimidated into paying between N100,000 and N1.5 million to secure local government jobs.

According to him, some applicants seeking senior positions were allegedly made to pay as much as N1.3 million or N1.5 million.

The commission chairman said the alleged fraud was uncovered by an investigation panel constituted by the state government following complaints over the recruitment exercise.

“The panel found out that as many as 47 victims were cajoled, frightened and intimidated to part with over N51.8 million for the fake local government jobs,” Ekpo said.

He alleged that the perpetrators issued fake employment letters to some of the victims after collecting money from them.

Ekpo also alleged that some officials manipulated the recruitment process to accommodate their relatives, including family members who were not resident in the state.

He said several victims appeared before the panel and submitted evidence, which was subsequently verified.

“Many of these victims came to open up and submitted evidences which the panel verified. We had guaranteed all whistleblowers security and confidentiality if they come up with evidences,” he said.

Ekpo said the government was identifying those allegedly involved in the scheme for questioning and possible prosecution, adding that appropriate sanctions would be imposed on anyone found culpable.

The controversial recruitment exercise was recently cancelled by the state government following the recommendations of the investigation panel.

However, Ekpo said 821 persons from the cancelled exercise had been retained, while a fresh recruitment exercise would commence in about two weeks.

He assured prospective applicants that the new exercise would be transparent and conducted in line with standard procedures without commercialisation.

He added that the names of successful candidates in the fresh exercise, as well as the 821 retained workers, would be published.