A sweeping personnel exercise by the Bauchi State Government has resulted in the compulsory retirement of 653 civil servants, a move officials described as part of a broader effort to enforce service rules and restructure the workforce.
Beyond the mandatory exits, the shake-up also saw dozens of officers leave voluntarily, reflecting what authorities portrayed as a year of decisive actions aimed at strengthening discipline, efficiency, and administrative order within the civil service.
Details of the development emerged in Bauchi during a briefing issued by the State Civil Service Commission.
The Commission’s Information Officer, Saleh Umar, said the retirements formed part of a wider personnel review carried out across the year.
According to Umar, the Commission handled more than 3,000 personnel-related cases spanning promotions, cadre conversions, upgrades, transfers, dismissals, terminations, as well as voluntary and compulsory retirements.
He noted that these decisions were reached through 28 major activities conducted over 91 formal sittings.
Providing a breakdown, Umar said 1,178 officers advanced to higher grade levels, while 493 others were converted to new cadres within the service.
“A total of 653 officers were mandatorily retired in line with extant rules, while 61 chose to exit the service voluntarily,” he said.
He added that three officers were dismissed and one appointment was terminated over misconduct.
Moreover, the Commission disclosed that more than 3,500 backlog cases, largely relating to promotions and routine administrative matters, were cleared during the exercise.
This, Umar explained, helped ease congestion from pending submissions by ministries, departments, and agencies.
He further stated that the clean-up had strategically positioned the Commission to begin its 2026 operations without inherited delays.
“We are entering the new year on a clean slate, with systems better aligned to deliver timely and transparent personnel management,” Umar said.
