Crackdown toughens on Anambra judiciary ghostworkers

The Chief Judge of Anambra State, Justice Peter Umeadi has said that era of ghost workers in the state judiciary is over after an exercise to ascertain the actual staff strength of the state judiciary. Umeadi who stated this in a special court session organized to mark the commencement of a 2017/2018 legal year in […]

The Chief Judge of Anambra State, Justice Peter Umeadi has said that era of ghost workers in the state judiciary is over after an exercise to ascertain the actual staff strength of the state judiciary.

Umeadi who stated this in a special court session organized to mark the commencement of a 2017/2018 legal year in the state, noted that the feat was achieved through a biometric verification exercise that was embarked upon in June this year.

He said the judiciary reached an agreement with its bankers and part of the agreement was to make available for it the conduct of a scientific, open and credible biometric exercise to ascertain the correct number of staff working in the judiciary.

“As I speak to you, there are no ghost workers in the judiciary of Anambra State, and at the last count with the state of the art appliances, a total of 2,140 staff were captured,” he said.

He said 42 other members of staff have not been accredited, but explained that the identified staff may have either left the job or travelled outside the country.

“These yet to be accredited persons could have pursued other endeavors; they could have married and followed their spouses elsewhere; they may have relocated both within and out of the shores of Nigeria. But we do not have ghost workers currently,” he said.

He said the efforts of the staff of the judiciary also helped the state government in its internally generated revenue profile which culminated in the generation of about N140 million into the treasury of the state in just 10 months.

“The sum overshot budget estimate and was collected within 10 months of between October 2016 to July 2017,” he said.

He further added that there were systematic overhaul of court infrastructure, saying "We have it on record that all the 27 high Court judges and 62 magistrates of different cadre are equipped with highly rated law pavilion software.”