The Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-corruption Commission says it has uncovered 1,108 fake traders in allocation of shops at the Kwari market in Kano metropolis.
The Chairman of the commission, Mr Muhuyi Rimingado, disclosed this at the unveiling of NIPOST Anti-corruption Stamps at the Coronation Hall, Government House, Kano on Thursday.
Rimingado said that the commission undertook a biometric screening of the affected traders to ascertain the genuine owners of shops at the market.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the exercise followed the decision by the State Government to reconstruct the market in order to provide access roads and other facilities.
He said the exercise which was conducted on the instruction of Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje was aimed at entrenching transparency and accountability in the allocation of shops to traders.
The chairman said in the course of the exercise, 3,468 traders were initially submitted to the commission by the government for verification.
“The first verification revealed that 2,823 traders were screened as `yan tebura traders’ (mobile traders), while the second verification conducted through the biometric capture exercise showed that only 2,359 were genuine traders,’’ he said.
Besides, Rimingado disclosed that the commission had recovered huge sums of money in cash from 2015 to date in addition to movable and immovable properties allegedly stolen from Kano state government.
He added that the commission recently recruited 120 workers as part of effort to strengthen the manpower needed by the anti-graft agency.
According to him, the commission would continue to give priority attention to training and retraining of its personnel to enhance their productivity.
“The commission has also provided electronic attendance machine to enhance punctuality and productivity which is the first of its kind in the state,” said Rimingado. (NAN)
MTM/MST