Gov.-Abdulfatah-Ahmed

Kwara state Government announced today that any worker that failed to submit his Biometric Verification Number (BVN) within seven days will not receive salary.

Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed stated this during a meeting of the Committee on Personnel Database Development in Ilorin on Wednesday.

He said government has no intention of withholding any worker’s salary without justification.

The governor also said affected workers and pensioners will be credited with their salaries and pensions but will not be able to access the money until they obtain BVN.

Ahmed, who is also Chairman of the committee, explained that the unique bank numbers were necessary for preliminary verification of workers and pensioners on the state and local government councils’ payrolls.

He noted that at this stage of the verification, those without valid BVN could not yet be designated as ghost workers.

Ahmed said the intention of the database was to give government accurate picture of state and councils’ payrolls and ensure that those properly employed received salaries/pensions.

Alternate Chairman of the committee, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, said only 49, 579 out of the 82, 642 workers so screened, had valid BVN.

He added that 124 workers were so far discovered to have fake BVN.

He said that the first level verification also revealed 324 individuals who were linked to 659 multiple accounts.

Gold, who is also the Secretary to the State Government, urged workers and pensioners yet to submit their BVN to do so within seven days or risk having their payments withheld.

He called on workers who were properly recruited by the state and local governments to remain calm, assuring that ongoing verification will not affect their salaries and jobs.