The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has uncovered a major ghost-worker scheme in which a government official allegedly enrolled 14 members of his family on the public payroll and collected their salaries.
The ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Aliyu, disclosed this recently in Abuja while delivering the keynote address at the 2026 Economic Confidential Lecture and National Spokespersons Award organised by Image Merchants Promotions Limited.
Aliyu said the discovery followed a year-long investigation into suspected ghost workers and payroll manipulation across government institutions.
According to the ICPC chairman, one official allegedly inserted 14 members of his family into the government payroll and collected their salaries. In another case, an individual allegedly enrolled his wife, daughter, son and other relatives, enabling him to receive 13 salaries.
“We discovered that one person enrolled 14 members of his family,” Aliyu said.
“He lived in a religious hotel, a hotel at the public office, receiving salaries.”
He added that another individual “enrolled his wife, his daughter, his son, and others and was receiving 13 salaries.”
The ICPC boss said investigators uncovered sophisticated methods used to manipulate payroll records. In some cases, the names and email addresses of supposed employees appeared in official databases, while the bank accounts linked to those records belonged to different people.
“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 explained.
Aliyu said the commission had identified about 900 suspected ghost workers and published their names to allow those affected to prove that they were genuine government employees.
He said the investigation highlighted the scale of payroll fraud and its wider impact on public finances, noting that ghost workers could generate fraudulent pension, mortgage, housing fund and health insurance benefits.
“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.
The ICPC chairman further disclosed that the commission recovered more than N24 billion linked to ghost-worker pension payments in 2024.
Aliyu said the commission was increasingly prioritising preventive measures, data-driven investigations and interventions aimed at blocking avenues for corruption rather than relying solely on criminal prosecution after public funds had been lost.
“It is better for us to do that than to engage in filing criminal charges. How many charges can we file?” he said.
He called for greater deployment of technology and data analytics in the fight against corruption, stressing that reliable information and effective communication were critical to strengthening accountability and restoring public confidence in government institutions.
The disclosure adds to the ICPC’s ongoing efforts to tackle payroll fraud and recover public funds allegedly diverted through ghost-worker arrangements.
