The Akwa Ibom State Government has formally welcomed 4,000 newly recruited public servants, describing the exercise as a deliberate step to rebuild and strengthen the state’s workforce after a verification exercise exposed massive payroll fraud.
Governor Umo Eno addressed the new employees on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, during their orientation programme held at the Ibom Tropicana Event Centre in Uyo.
According to the governor, the recruitment was not a political gesture. It followed a comprehensive staff audit conducted at the start of his administration, which revealed that more than 2,000 names on the payroll belonged to ghost workers, while several others were retirees who were still receiving salaries.
With those irregularities removed, he said, large vacancies opened up across ministries, departments and agencies, making fresh recruitment unavoidable.
“After blocking the leakages, it became necessary to recruit to fill the vacant positions and strengthen the service. There was a huge vacancy gap in the service, so we are not recruiting to bloat the service but to strengthen and make the public service more efficient for excellent work output,” he said.
Eno stressed that governance demands discipline and competence, adding that the new intake was selected to meet real needs in the system.
“Governance is serious business to be undertaken by serious-minded people. So, the recruitment was done out of utmost urgency and available vacancies to strengthen the system to function effectively,” he said.
He urged the recruits to embrace digital skills, professionalism and respect in their dealings with superiors and members of the public, noting that innovation would be key to transforming service delivery.
“As our children, the reason we sent you to school was for you to come back with new and better ideas to transform the way we do things. We expect this crop of civil servants to be the brightest and the best that we have ever had.
We expect you to be committed to your work; be passionate and transparent in the execution of your responsibilities,” he said.
