Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja has granted an order for the seizure of N941,994,079.86 linked to ghost workers in different Ministries, Departments and agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government.
The judge granted the order following an ex parte application filed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on behalf of the Federal Government, seeking the forfeiture of the funds believed to be proceeds of unlawful activities.
The (ICPC) said it uncovered the ghost workers fraud during investigations into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) that allegedly involved hundreds of fictitious public servants across several MDAs.
As part of the legal process, the ICPC said it published the names of 910 suspected beneficiaries of the alleged fraud in Daily Trust and The Punch newspapers on March 18, 2026, inviting anyone with legitimate claims to the funds to come forward.
According to the commission, the investigation stemmed from a 2023 systems study that uncovered widespread irregularities in IPPIS and revealed numerous ghost workers embedded in government institutions’ payrolls.
Following the findings, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved a comprehensive audit of the payroll platform, leading to a joint investigation by the ICPC and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) in April 2024.
The investigation reportedly uncovered 587 suspected ghost workers on the IPPIS platform.
The commission said the probe revealed that fictitious IPPIS identities had been created for non-existent personnel across multiple MDAs, with salaries allegedly paid over several years into bank accounts belonging to individuals and companies. In several instances, account names did not correspond with those of the purported employees, while some accounts allegedly received multiple salary payments simultaneously.
To preserve the suspected proceeds of crime, the ICPC placed Post No Debit (PND) restrictions on the identified accounts between August and November 2024, freezing funds amounting to N941.9 million.
(Ripples)
