Ghost workers: ICPC uncovers official who enrolled 14 relatives on govt payroll

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.

ICPC Chairman, Musa Aliyu, disclosed this on Thursday at the 2026 Economic Confidential Lecture and National Spokespersons Award in Abuja.

Aliyu said investigations by the commission uncovered several cases of payroll manipulation, including an official who enrolled his wife, children and other relatives on the government payroll and received multiple salaries.

According to him, one individual enrolled 14 family members as workers, while another enrolled his wife, daughter, son and other relatives and received 13 salaries.

The ICPC chairman said the commission had identified about 900 suspected ghost workers and published their names to allow those affected to establish that they were genuine employees.

He said the commission spent about a year investigating the cases and uncovered different methods used to insert fictitious names into government payroll systems.

Aliyu explained that some of the fictitious employees had names and email addresses on official payroll records, but the bank accounts linked to them belonged to other individuals.

He also disclosed that the ICPC recovered more than N24 billion in suspected ghost workers’ pension funds in 2024.

The commission, he said, was strengthening collaboration with other government agencies and deploying data and technology to prevent payroll fraud and recover public resources.

Aliyu added that the ICPC was increasingly focusing on corruption prevention and ensuring value for government expenditure, rather than relying solely on criminal prosecution.