By Our Correspondent
The Federal Government’s battle against ghost workers has taken a dramatic turn as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) uncovered suspected fictitious employees receiving salaries across several Federal Government institutions, including federal universities.
The latest investigation has exposed what the anti-corruption agency described as a large-scale payroll fraud involving hundreds of non-existent public servants whose identities were allegedly created on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
According to the ICPC, its investigation uncovered 908 suspected ghost workers across at least 50 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), with approximately ₦942 million linked to fraudulent salary payments.
The revelations have raised fresh concerns over the effectiveness of government’s payroll verification mechanisms and the extent to which fictitious employees may still be embedded in the Federal Government’s personnel records despite years of reforms.
Federal Universities Named
Among the institutions affected by the investigation are several prominent federal universities.
The ICPC listed the University of Benin, University of Calabar, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, University of Maiduguri and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, among institutions where suspected ghost-worker identities were identified.
Other affected institutions and government bodies include the Nigeria Police Force, Federal Ministries of Defence, Education, Agriculture and Rural Development, Works, Water Resources and Interior, as well as the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
The naming of universities in the investigation is particularly significant because federal universities have historically operated under complex personnel and payroll structures, with large numbers of academic, non-academic and administrative employees.
However, the ICPC’s identification of institutions in its investigation does not by itself establish that the universities’ managements or all their employees were involved in wrongdoing. The investigation concerns suspected fictitious identities and payroll transactions associated with the affected institutions.
How the Alleged Fraud Worked
The ICPC said investigations revealed that fictitious IPPIS identities were allegedly created for non-existent personnel across multiple MDAs.
Salaries were subsequently paid over extended periods into bank accounts linked to individuals and companies.
In some cases, the anti-graft agency discovered that the names on the bank accounts did not correspond with the names of the purported government employees. Some accounts also allegedly received multiple salary payments simultaneously.
The findings point to possible manipulation of payroll and personnel records, raising questions about how fictitious identities passed through verification processes and remained on government payroll for extended periods.
₦941.9 Million Forfeited to FG
The development has already resulted in a major financial recovery.
The Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the final forfeiture of ₦941,994,079.86 linked to the suspected IPPIS payroll fraud.
The ICPC said the money had been traced to accounts connected with the suspected ghost-worker scheme.
The court’s forfeiture followed investigations that began after an ICPC systems study in 2023 identified irregularities involving ghost workers in several MDAs. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu subsequently approved a comprehensive audit of the IPPIS, leading to a joint investigation by the ICPC and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation in April 2024.
587 Suspected Ghost Workers Initially Identified
According to the ICPC, the joint investigation initially uncovered 587 suspected ghost workers on the IPPIS platform.
A subsequent verification exercise conducted in 2025 cleared 120 civil servants, whose identities and employment status were confirmed. Those individuals were subsequently reinstated on the payroll system.
However, the investigation found that 467 bank accounts remained linked to unverified individuals, with the account holders yet to be satisfactorily identified.
The money frozen in those accounts eventually became the subject of the forfeiture proceedings.
One Official Allegedly Added Relatives to Payroll
The investigation has also exposed disturbing examples of alleged internal manipulation of government payroll.
The ICPC Chairman, Musa Adamu Aliyu, recently disclosed that investigators uncovered a government official who allegedly enrolled numerous relatives on the public payroll and collected salaries associated with fictitious or improperly inserted employees.
The disclosure underscores the possibility that some of the ghost-worker cases may have involved insiders with access to personnel and payroll processes.
In another account of the investigation, the anti-graft agency identified cases in which officials allegedly exploited weaknesses within payroll systems to insert fictitious employee profiles.
Police Records Highest Number
Although several federal universities were named among the affected institutions, the Nigeria Police Force reportedly recorded the highest number of suspected ghost workers, with 570 cases, according to reports on the ICPC investigation.
The National Water Resources Authority reportedly followed with 80 suspected cases, while the Federal Ministry of Works had 56. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence were also listed among institutions affected by the investigation.
Fresh Questions Over IPPIS
The latest revelations are likely to intensify debate over the effectiveness of IPPIS.
The system was introduced to improve transparency, eliminate payroll leakages and ensure that government salaries are paid only to legitimate employees.
Yet the discovery of fictitious identities allegedly receiving salaries demonstrates that technology alone cannot completely eliminate payroll fraud if individuals with access to the system are able to manipulate personnel records.
The ICPC’s findings therefore raise critical questions about biometric verification, personnel audits, account reconciliation and oversight mechanisms within federal institutions.
Government Faces Pressure for Stronger Action
With hundreds of suspected fictitious workers identified and nearly ₦1 billion linked to the latest investigation forfeited to the Federal Government, pressure is likely to mount on government to identify and prosecute those responsible.
Beyond recovering stolen funds, Nigerians will expect the authorities to establish how the fictitious employees were created, who authorised their inclusion on payroll, who verified their records and who ultimately received the salaries.
The latest investigation also highlights the need for regular independent payroll audits across federal universities, ministries, departments and agencies.
For a country battling revenue constraints and rising personnel costs, every naira paid to a non-existent worker represents money that could otherwise be deployed to education, healthcare, infrastructure and other public services.
The ICPC’s latest discovery therefore goes beyond another ghost-worker scandal. It raises a larger question about the integrity of Nigeria’s public payroll system—and whether the loopholes that have allowed fictitious workers to collect public salaries for years can finally be closed.
Source: Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC); Channels Television; Punch Newspaper.