The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has uncovered an official who allegedly enrolled 14 family members on the government payroll as ghost workers.
The ICPC Chairman, Musa Aliyu, 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.
Aliyu said investigations revealed that individuals manipulated government payroll systems to create fictitious employees and collect multiple salaries.
According to him, one official enrolled 14 members of his family on the payroll, while another enrolled his wife, daughter, son and other relatives 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.”
The ICPC chairman said the commission had identified about 900 suspected ghost workers and published their names to give those affected an opportunity to prove that they were genuine employees.
He explained that the commission spent about a year investigating the scheme and uncovered various methods used to insert fictitious names into government payroll systems.
Aliyu said some of the ghost workers had names and email addresses listed in official payroll records, but the bank accounts attached to them belonged to different individuals.
He warned that the fraud could have broader financial implications because ghost workers could also become beneficiaries of pensions, mortgages, housing funds and health insurance.
According to him, the ICPC recovered more than ₦24 billion in ghost workers’ pension funds in 2024.
Aliyu said the commission was strengthening collaboration with other government agencies while prioritising preventive measures to curb corruption and recover public resources.
He added that the ICPC was increasingly focused 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?” he said.
He stressed that the ultimate objective was to ensure that Nigerians received value for government expenditure.
