Friday, August 14, 2026 - The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) says it has uncovered cases in which government payroll systems were manipulated to create ghost workers, including one official who allegedly enrolled 14 family members and collected multiple salaries.
Musa Aliyu, chairman of the ICPC, disclosed this while
delivering the keynote address at the 2026 Economic Confidential Lecture and
National Spokespersons Award organised by Image Merchants Promotions Limited
(IMPR) in Abuja on Thursday, July 13. Aliyu said investigations by the
commission revealed different methods used to insert fictitious employees into
government payrolls and divert public funds.
“We discovered that one person enrolled 14 members of his
family. He lived in a religious hotel, a hotel at the public office, receiving
salaries,” he said. “Another person enrolled his wife, his daughter, his son,
and others and was receiving 13 salaries.”
The ICPC chairman said the commission had identified about
900 suspected ghost workers and published their names to allow the affected
individuals to establish that they were genuine employees. He said the
investigation lasted about a year and uncovered cases where fictitious
employees appeared to have legitimate names and email addresses on official
payroll systems, while the bank accounts attached to their records belonged to
other people.
“We spent one year, one single year, on ghost workers,”
Aliyu said. “When they insert their names, you will see their name in the
payroll. You will see their email. But when you check the account number, you
will see the name of the person. So, that is how these things have been done.”
Aliyu warned that payroll fraud could have consequences
beyond the payment of salaries, because fictitious employees could also become
beneficiaries of pensions, mortgages, housing funds and health insurance. He
disclosed that the ICPC recovered more than N24 billion in suspected ghost
workers’ pension funds in 2024.
“Because, you know, once there is a ghost worker, there is
ghost pension, there is ghost mortgage, there is ghost housing fund, there is
ghost health insurance,” he said. “In 2024, we recovered over N24 billion ghost
workers pension.” The ICPC chairman said the commission was strengthening
cooperation with other government agencies while adopting preventive measures
to curb corruption and recover public resources.
He said the commission was increasingly focusing on
preventing corruption and ensuring that government projects were properly
executed, rather than relying solely on criminal prosecution. “It is better for
us to do that than to engage in filing criminal charges. How many charges can
we file?” Aliyu said
He added that the ultimate objective was to ensure that
Nigerians received value for government expenditure. Aliyu also called for
greater use of data and technology in combating corruption, saying reliable
information and effective communication were essential to improving public
confidence in anti-corruption efforts.
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