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A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the final forfeiture of N941,994,079.86 linked to an alleged Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) ghost workers’ fraud to the Federal Government.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), in a statement issued at the weekend by its Head of Media and Public Communications, Mr Okor Odey, said the order followed an ex parte application filed by the Commission on behalf of the Federal Government.
Justice Binta Nyako granted the application, ruling that the funds, believed to be proceeds of unlawful activities uncovered during investigations into the IPPIS payroll system, be permanently forfeited to the federal government.
According to the ICPC, its investigations uncovered a large-scale payroll fraud involving hundreds of non-existent public servants, with the sum of N941.9 million traced to accounts linked to the scheme.
The Commission recalled that, following the court’s directive, it published the names of 910 individuals suspected of having benefited from the alleged fraud in two newspapers on March 18, 2026, inviting interested parties to contest the forfeiture.
The anti-graft agency said the discovery stemmed from a systems study it conducted in 2023, which revealed numerous ghost workers embedded in the payrolls of several Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
It noted that President Bola Tinubu subsequently approved a comprehensive audit of the IPPIS, leading to a joint investigation launched in April 2024 by the ICPC and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF).
The investigation uncovered 587 suspected ghost workers on the payroll platform, with fictitious IPPIS identities allegedly created for non-existent personnel across multiple MDAs.
According to the Commission, salaries were paid over extended periods into bank accounts belonging to individuals and companies, while some accounts received multiple salary payments simultaneously despite discrepancies between account names and the purported employees.
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The ICPC said it placed Post No Debit (PND) restrictions on all identified accounts between August and November 2024, freezing funds suspected to be proceeds of fraud.
The affected institutions included the Nigeria Police Force; the 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, the University of Benin, the University of Calabar, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, the University of Maiduguri, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
The Commission added that a verification exercise carried out in 2025 cleared 120 civil servants, who were subsequently reinstated on the IPPIS platform after their identities and employment status were confirmed.
However, it said investigations showed that 467 bank accounts remained linked to unverified individuals, with account holders yet to be identified.
ICPC prosecution counsel, Mr Hamza Sani, told the court that detailed records of the affected accounts, including IPPIS numbers, names of the purported workers and banking details of beneficiaries, formed part of the evidence presented before the court.
Delivering the ruling, Justice Nyako ordered the transfer of ownership of the recovered funds to the federal government.
“That an Order is hereby made for the Final Forfeiture to the Federal Republic of Nigeria the Sum of ₦941,994,079.86 seized during investigation into the IPPIS Payroll scam in the year 2024,” the judge ruled.
The ICPC reiterated its commitment to combating corruption and promoting transparency, accountability, and good governance through the rule of law.
