The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has urged its members to remain calm after reports that over 17,000 of them were delisted from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). ASCSN’s national president, Etim Okon, assured members that measures were being taken to address the situation. He emphasized that affected workers should not worry and that the situation would be resolved. Mr. Okon made these remarks during a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday in response to the report.

The leader of ASCSN expressed concern that many authentic civil servants pretended not to know about the verification exercise that took place. According to Mr. Okon, the office of the Head of Service of the Federation conducted an online verification, but over 17,000 core civil service workers did not participate. Consequently, ASCSN took action and contacted the government through the HoSF. This was necessary as many of their members were anxious about the situation.

“We went deep into the document where we also realised that even in some government agencies, we realised that names of personal assistants, special assistants and some ministers were included in the IPPIS portal.”

The association’s president said a committee had already been constituted in the HOSF to handle such cases.

“We call on those with genuine complaints who have initially done the online verification on the portal of the IPPIS to submit a scanned copy of their documents to the email that has been provided,” Mr Okon stated.

Mr Okon mentioned that the HoSF gave a one-week deadline to fully comply with the verification exercise and appealed to the government in its magnanimity to extend the deadline because of the rigours involved.