Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, Governor of Benue State, says his administration has saved N1.2 billion as a result of the recent workers verification exercise conducted in the state.

The governor made the announcement on Friday during an Extraordinary Stakeholders Meeting of the state’s ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

The Samuel Ortom successor disclosed earlier in the week that not fewer than 2,500 ghost workers were uncovered across the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.

He stated that following the successful completion of the first part of the verification process, several fraudulent acts were found and removed from the state’s payroll.

After the first phase of the forensic, for those in the classrooms and the local government, we discovered over 2500 ghost workers and removed them. By this, Government saved the sum of N1.2 billion,” he said.

He declared that the government has reduced the amount that used to go to ghost schools and ghost workers from N1.6 billion to N800 million.

He also stated that the teachers whose two-month wages had been delayed due to the audit have begun receiving salary alerts.

While assuring that the screening and audit exercise would continue, the Governor said “the committee would continue its duties until all those who are milking the state are identified and made to return what they took from the people.”