No fewer than 47 applicants have allegedly lost over N51.8 million to individuals who promised to secure local government jobs for them in Cross River State.
Chairman of the Cross River State Local Government Service Commission, Nsa Ekpo, disclosed this on Monday while speaking with journalists in Calabar.
Ekpo said an investigative panel set up by the state government to probe the 2024/2025 local government recruitment exercise found that the affected applicants paid between N100,000 and N1.5 million for the purported appointments.
“The panel found out that as many as 47 victims were cajoled, frightened and intimidated to part with over N51.8 million for fake local government jobs,” he said.
According to him, applicants seeking senior positions allegedly paid the highest sums, with some parting with N1.3 million and N1.5 million.
He added that some of the applicants were allegedly issued documents presented to them as employment letters, causing them to believe that they had secured appointments into the local government service.
The chairman said the investigation also uncovered alleged attempts to manipulate the recruitment process by influencing the inclusion of relatives and other individuals who did not meet the stipulated requirements.
Ekpo said the probe was initiated following complaints from members of the public, leading the state government to constitute a panel to investigate the recruitment exercise.
He explained that the panel relied substantially on information and evidence provided by whistleblowers.
“Many of these victims came to open up and submitted evidence which the panel verified.
“We had guaranteed all whistleblowers security and confidentiality if they came up with evidence,” he said.
Ekpo said the government was taking steps to identify individuals allegedly linked to the irregularities for questioning and, where necessary, prosecution or other lawful sanctions.
He said the findings of the panel led to the cancellation of the 2024/2025 local government recruitment exercise.
However, Ekpo clarified that not all candidates from the cancelled exercise would be required to apply again.
He said 821 candidates from the annulled exercise had been cleared and would be retained, while other qualified applicants would be considered in a fresh recruitment exercise expected to begin within two weeks.
According to him, the new recruitment exercise will involve the employment of 4,000 personnel into the state’s local government service.
The chairman assured prospective applicants that the exercise would be conducted transparently and would not be commercialised.
He added that the final list of successful candidates, including the 821 persons retained from the previous exercise, would be published to ensure transparency.
