Names Of 80,115 Police Ghost workers – Courtroom Orders IGP (examine details)

The Federal high court in Abuja has ordered the Inspector-general of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, to release the information of the 80,115 ghost officers said to had been discovered within the police formations and command in 2018.

Justice Binta Nyako, in a judgment, ordered the IGP to release the information to a civil society organization, Centre for Social Justice, which in advance implemented for it but turned into denied get entry to by means of police authorities.

The judge, consequently, ordered the police helmsman to at once release to the group, information, such as the names and make contact with addresses of the “ghost officers” and their ranks.

The choose also ordered the IGP to release the bank account numbers, bank verification numbers, monthly salaries and emoluments and the overall cash paid to each one of them.

The court also ordered the IGP to pay to CSJ, the sum of N500,000 as damages for earlier denying the organization access to the information.

Our correspondent on Tuesday saw a copy of the enrolled orders, containing the summary of the judgment of the court delivered on October 22, 2019.

The Lead Director of CSJ, Mr. Eze Onyekpere, recalled in a statement on Tuesday that his organisation sent a Freedom of Information request to the IGP on April 3, 2018, requesting information on the details of the list of 80,115 ghost officers.

He noted that the then Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, had disclosed the information about the existence of the ghost workers in her presentation on the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System to the Federal Executive Council on March 21, 2018.

The IGP was said to have failed to release the information and give reasons for its inability to grant the request to CSJ.

The development forced the organisation to, through its lawyer, Mr. Kingsley Nnajiaka, file the suit, FHC/ABJ/CS/493/2018, praying for an order compelling the IGP to release the information to it.

In her judgment delivered on October 22, 2019, the judge held among others, that, “denying the applicant access to the details of the list of 80,115 ghost officers recently discovered in the police formations and command through the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System without explanation constitutes an infringement of the applicant’s right guaranteed and protected by Section 1 (1) of the freedom of information Act 2011.”

The judge additionally made an order of mandamus compelling the IGP to “grant access to the list of 80,115 ghost officers lately observed in the police formations and command thru the implementation of the integrated Payroll and personnel data machine”.

“It additionally ordered the respondent “to pay to the applicant the sum of N 500, 000 as damages for denying the Applicant get entry to to facts.”

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