The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) says it has uncovered an official who enrolled 14 family members on government payroll as ghost workers.
Musa Aliyu, chairman of the ICPC, 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, said investigations by the commission exposed how individuals manipulated government payroll systems to create fictitious employees and receive multiple salaries.
The ICPC chairman said another individual enrolled his wife, daughter, son and other relatives on the payroll and received 13 salaries.
“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.”
Aliyu said the commission had identified about 900 suspected ghost workers and published their names to give the affected individuals an opportunity to prove that they were genuine employees.
He said the ICPC spent about a year investigating the cases and uncovered different methods used to insert fictitious names into government payrolls.
According to him, some fictitious employees had names and email addresses on official payroll records, but the bank accounts linked to them belonged to other people.
“We spent one year, one single year, on ghost workers,” he 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.”
He noted that payroll fraud could have wider financial implications for the government, as fictitious employees could also become beneficiaries of pensions, mortgages, housing funds and health insurance.
The ICPC chairman said the commission’s interventions were aimed at protecting public resources and reducing the financial burden created by fraudulent government payrolls.
He added that the commission 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,” Aliyu said.
“In 2024, we recovered over N24 billion ghost workers pension.”
Aliyu said the commission was strengthening collaboration with other government agencies and adopting preventive measures to curb corruption and recover public funds.
He said the ICPC was increasingly prioritising corruption prevention and ensuring that government projects were properly executed rather than relying mainly on criminal prosecution.
The ICPC chairman said the commission had recovered or secured government resources through interventions in public projects and other areas.
“It is better for us to do that than to engage in filing criminal charges. How many charges can we file?” he said.
He added that the objective was to ensure that Nigerians derived value from government expenditure.
Aliyu also called for improved use of data and technology in the fight against corruption, noting that access to reliable information and effective communication were necessary to build public confidence in anti-corruption efforts.
