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Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State on Friday directed that the new minimum wage of N30,000 be paid to the state civil servants from January 2020. Tambuwal also ordered the immediate verification of personnel to possibly weed out ghost workers on the payroll. He gave the directives when he received the report of the committee constituted by the state government on implementation of the new minimum wage and consequential adjustments. Verification of unscheduled staff and the sharp practice of the sale of offer letters of employment to unwary citizens and a situation where children are on the payroll of the government will not be condoned. Prior to the negotiation that ushered the new wage regime, the state government had discovered a disparity in the salary data between the state civil service commission, the ministry of finance and the office of the head of service. This made me to look into the situation and we decided to harmonise all the data, leading up to the taking of steps to introduce the issuance of payslips to workers, which is the first time in the history of the state,” Tambuwal said. The governor promised to pay the workers owed backlogs of salaries as a result of the meticulous process of the fiscal discipline measures embarked upon by the government. According to him, the wage bill in the state will now have an increase of N340 million against N324 million based on the committee’s findings as an addition to the existing amount being paid to workers. He commended the labor unions and government officials in the committee for their collective efforts, maturity, patience and patriotism.