The Chairman of Irepodun Local Government Council of Kwara State, Alhaji Luqman Owolewa, says there is no truth in a report that the council has 339 ghost workers.

Owolewa told the News Agency of Nigeria in Ilorin on Monday that he never granted any interview identifying ghost workers in the council.

"What I said on the occasion of the Omu Aran Development Association Annual General Meeting was that out of the 839 workers on the ground, about 500 were regular workers at the council.

"Out of the remaining, some were discovered to be living in Lagos, Abuja and other states without coming to work regularly.

"This is the category I called perpetual absentees, that is our employees who have absconded from work.

"Also out of this number, some are not known to their departmental heads," Owolewa said.

He referred to a recent screening exercise where an employee could not identify the council's Director of Personnel Management and Treasurer who were present.

Owolewa also said many were absenting themselves from work, claiming to be schooling.

He, however, added that such workers could not produce the mandatory letters of release from the Local Government Service Commission to proceed on such courses as required by law.

The council boss further said some workers deliberately refused to show up for the screening exercise since it started two months ago.

"I never said we discovered ghost workers totaling 339 workers.

"In fact, we have had to clear those with genuine reasons for not coming to work regularly  like those on health grounds," he said.

Owolewa said he had used the ODA meeting to appeal to parents to prevail on their children and wards to report for duty regularly as the council would not tolerate absenteeism.