19th November, 2012
Ninty-eight staff of the Lagos State Lands Bureau have been redeployed to other ministries. The bureau is alleged to be the juiciest of all the government ministries and where corruption thrives the most.
The recent redeployment of 98 staff may not be unconnected with cases of corruption traced to the bureau, which generates the highest revenue for the state government.
Recently, about N38 million disappeared from the bureau, leading to the sack of some staff found culpable in diverting government’s money to personal use.
Early this year, officers of the Lagos State Taskforce stormed the ministry in a bid to investigate some corruption cases on the order of the governor.
The bureau does not have a commissioner as other ministries but is directly under the office of the Governor.
At the government secretariat, any staff posted to the Lands Bureau is always dubbed lucky. Why? Because such a “fortunate” staff will start driving flashy cars as soon as they get there. There is a lot of money to make.
Some of the staff redeployed have overstayed in the ministry. In the civil service, a staff is allowed to spend a minimum of two years and a maximum of four years in a ministry before he is redeployed.
In the Lands Bureau, some staff will do everything to retain their seats even after they have spent over 10 years there. Lobbying and godfatherism is at play here.
One of the staff redeployed had spent 26 years in the bureau without being redeployed. There are some that have spent 23 years and 18 years, among others.
In the last decade, there has never been mass purge as has just happened in the bureau that 98 staff are redeployed in one fell swoop.
The sad thing about the exercise is that some staff did not want to relinquish their position and had begun to lobby to remain in the ministry.
A government official said some of the affected staff had begun to lobby as they did not want to miss the “state’s cake,” but Governor Babatunde Fashola is determined to sanitise the bureau and make it effective.
According to the acting Head of Service, Lateef Abari, officers affected are hereby directed to hand over and report in their new duty posts immediately.