Some cooperative societies being operated by civil servants in Niger State have been discovered to have defrauded their members to the tune of N1.2 billion in the last four years.

The cooperatives societies were said to have been run on behalf of the civil servants in the ministries of education, health, works and infrastructure and agriculture.

The Head of Service, Alhaji Ibrahim Matane, who made the disclosure in Minna, on Thursday, said that apart from carrying out deductions from workers’ salaries, they also acquired illegal loans from banks without authorisation.

Matane, who briefed newsmen on the issue, said that following the inability of the cooperative societies to pay back the loans they obtained, the government had been dragged to court by the commercial banks that gave out the loans.

He said as a result of the embarrassment caused the government by the action of the civil servants, the administration had raised a panel to investigate the matter and recommend appropriate actions to the government.

In addition, he said that the government would take action to uncover those behind the syndicate, adding that the administration had directed all top government functionaries not to endorse any loan for groups in their ministries.