ICPC has uncovered official who placed 14 family members on government payroll.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has uncovered an alleged payroll fraud scheme involving a government official who enrolled 14 members of his family as public employees.
ICPC Chairman Musa Aliyu disclosed the finding on Thursday while delivering a keynote address at the 2026 Economic Confidential Lecture and National Spokespersons Awards in Abuja.
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Aliyu said a year-long investigation by the commission exposed different methods allegedly used by public officials to insert fictitious employees into government payroll systems and collect multiple salaries.
“We discovered that one person enrolled 14 members of his family,” he said.
The ICPC chairman cited another case in which an individual allegedly registered his wife, daughter, son and other relatives and subsequently received 13 salaries.
According to him, investigators found that some questionable payroll records contained the names and email addresses of supposed employees, while the associated bank accounts belonged to other individuals.
“When they insert their names, you will see their names on the payroll. You will see their email addresses. But when you check the account numbers, you will see the names of other persons,” Aliyu explained.
He said the commission identified about 900 suspected ghost workers and published their names to give those affected an opportunity to prove that they were legitimate employees.
Aliyu warned that the financial implications of payroll fraud extended beyond monthly salaries, as ghost-worker records could also generate illegitimate pension, mortgage, housing fund and health insurance payments.
The ICPC chairman further disclosed that the commission recovered more than N24 billion in suspected ghost-worker pension funds in 2024.
He said the anti-corruption agency was strengthening its collaboration with other government institutions and deploying data and technology to identify payroll irregularities, prevent fraud and recover public funds.
Aliyu added that the commission was increasing its focus on preventing corruption and ensuring value for government expenditure instead of relying exclusively on criminal prosecutions.
The identities of the officials implicated in the alleged schemes and their respective ministries or agencies were not disclosed.
