Niger govt sacks 80% staff in education ministry, says they forged certificates

The Niger State government has sacked 80% of staff in the state education ministry saying it discovered that they forged their certificates.

This was disclosed by a committee the government commissioned to screen all categories of civil servants in the state.

The chairman of the screening committee, Ibrahim Panti, who disclosed this at the weekend noted that the syndicate behind the printing of the fake certificates of the state College of Education, Minna, had been arrested by the police.

He also said that five members of staff of the institution had also been arrested by the police over the matter.

According to Panti, a printer arrested for his involvement in the crime, confessed to police when being interrogated that he printed and sold fake certificates to many, which they used to gain employment both in the state and outside of it.

Panti said, “The screening has been so revealing that 80 per cent staff of the state Ministry of Education are not genuinely certificated.

“During the exercise, many of them could not even write their names or speak correct English.

“Most of them are teachers and one wonders the type of knowledge they have been imparting on the students.”

Noting that all the culprits had been sacked, he said they would be replaced with those with genuine certificates.

The Niger State government had also recently sacked a civil servant who allegedly impersonated the state Commissioner for Agriculture and 79 other civil servants from the Niger State civil service for engaging in various types of fraud considered detrimental to the state government.