The action was part of continuing initiatives to get rid of phantom workers and simplify the nation’s payroll system.

This was revealed in a statement released on Wednesday and signed by Mohammed Ahmed, the director of communication for the office of the Head of Service of the Federation, and Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

Remember that 11,447 government workers had anomalies in their records out of the 59,201 officers who took part in the verification operation in full earlier this year.

Yemi-Esan, however, issued an order reopening the verification portal and inviting the 11,447 civil servants whose salaries were suspended to update their records online for the verification exercise, which will take place from October 16 to October 27, 2023. Of the 11,447, only 10,761 officers showed up for the physical verification exercise, and the remaining 686 did not attend.

Parts of the announcement said as follows: “The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation received the records of 59,201 Civil Servants who completed the verification process and had no discrepancies in their records, so their salaries could continue to be paid.” On the other hand, 11,447 cops whose records were untrusted had their wages stopped.

“The verification portal was reopened for these officers to enable them to update their records online due to the suspension. They were then asked to participate in a verification exercise from October 16–27, 2023.

10,761 policemen in all took part in the physical verification exercise. To make sure that only reliable records were on the IPPIS platform, a phased review of validated records was conducted following the verification exercise.

“As soon as the following officials had their records cleaned, their names were forwarded to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation: i. 818 officers in September 2023; ii. 650 officers in October 2023;

iii. 6857 policemen in November 2023; iv. 1407 officers in December 2023; and v. 9,732 cops in total who were cleared.

While some of these officers have already received their salaries, others will get payment for all outstanding balances in December. For the office to verify the 1,029 officers’ files and reinstate their wages, their MDAs still need to provide the files containing inconsistent information.

As a result of their failure to appear for the verification exercise, around 686 officers had their wages stopped; as a result, their incomes are still suspended on the IPPIS platform.