NLC disputes Kano ghost workers discovery, blames administrative lapses

The Kano State chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has disputed the state government’s assertion regarding the discovery of 247 ghost workers in the local governments’ payroll.

In a statement made following the 2025 International Workers’ Day celebrations at the Sani Abacha Stadium on Thursday, NLC chairman Kabiri’u Inuwa argued that the state government was at fault for failing to process the retirement requests of retiring workers.

He explained that as long as these retirement notices were not processed, the workers should still be considered active employees.

“It is in the local government that you will retire, send your own application for retirement. After the date that you are leaving the service, it will not be processed. Stoppage of salary is a product of processing retirement procedures. Nobody can stop your salary without having the necessary documents that you are exiting the service in so-so months. Those are the category of workers that are referred to as ghost workers,” Inuwa stated.

He further emphasized that if retirement processes were not concluded, the workers should not be blamed for continuing to receive their salaries.

“Your retirement was not processed and sent. Salary is coming. Will you hold your hand and say let me take it back? No, because you are still a worker,” he added.

Inuwa also revealed that the union was actively working to ensure retirement desk officers fulfill their duties properly. “We are taking care of that. The labour is taking the bull by the horn. We will make it mandatory every retirement desk officer in every local government will be summoned at the Congress,” he said.

Expressing frustration over the publicity surrounding the issue, Inuwa remarked, “It’s embarrassing when every newspaper in Nigeria carried the story ‘Fraud in Kano salary.’ It’s on us, the labour. Because it is the workers that do the salary. It is the workers that prepare the salary. It is the workers that stop salaries. Then we are at a loss.”

Inuwa also raised concerns about the increasing use of casual labor in schools and hospitals, describing it as a dangerous trend that jeopardizes the quality of services.

“Hospitals and schools are places that you don’t have to take a casual worker because schools are providing the future leaders while hospitals are dealing with lives. You have to give them your best,” he stated, cautioning that casual workers may not show the same level of commitment and responsibility.

He called on the government to take steps to convert casual workers into full-time employees. “That is why we are considering it as a challenge, not to us alone as laborers, but to society in general,” Inuwa concluded.

NLC disputes Kano ghost workers discovery, blames administrative lapses