Husseina Mohammed, a Level 7 accountant at the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) in Lokoja, Kogi State — whose husband, also a civil servant in the state, has not been paid for the past 15 months — has returned over N1.7 million excess salary paid to her account for the month of March 2017.

The woman decided to return the N1, 780,500 excess payment because she and her husband believe that it was the right thing to do, despite the economic hardship made harsher by non-payment of workers’ salaries in the state.

Husseina’s husband is one of the workers affected by verification exercise by the Governor Yahaya Bello administration, which has generated so much controversy and confusion.

It has been reported that accounts of some workers who were not owed any salary arrears were credited huge sums of money while others owed as long as 15 months were yet to be paid.

Her husband has been cleared in the screening exercise, but has still not been paid his 16 months salary arrears.

She received an alert one early morning showing that her account had been credited with almost N1.8 million as “salary for the month of March” when ordinarily her monthly salary is approximately N34, 000.

She narrated her excitement to her husband and after a brief family meeting, they decided to refund the money.

Husseina said it was a difficult decision, especially with outstanding school fees of their children running into the entire session,

She approached Abdulkareem Abdulamlik, Director-General, Kogi State Bureau of Information and Grassroots Mobilisation, and explained that a huge sum had been credited to her bank account.

Husseina said she started the process of returning the money to the state government on May 22, and that the money was eventually paid into the government account with the Lokoja branch of the Zenith Bank Plc.

After that, she handed over the bank teller and other documents used in paying back the money to Abdulamlik.

On what she wants the government to do for her as a reward, Husseina said she only wants her husband’s outstanding 15 months salary arrears to be paid.

She said her husband’s salaries were withheld over alleged discrepancy in his age declaration, but it has since been rectified.

Abdulamlik commended Husseina and her husband for their honesty, adding that  with people like her in society, Nigeria was sure of winning the ongoing war against corruption.

He urged other civil servants and residents of the state to emulate her, and vowed that her good conduct would be rewarded.