THE Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the final forfeiture of N941,994,079.86 linked to suspected ghost workers uncovered in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) to the Federal Government.
News Point Nigeria reports that Justice Binta Nyako issued the order following an application filed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
Delivering the ruling, Justice Nyako said: “That an Order is hereby made for the Final Forfeiture to the Federal Republic of Nigeria the Sum of N941,994,079.86 seized during investigation into the IPPIS Payroll scam in the year 2024.”
The development was disclosed in a statement issued on Saturday by the spokesperson for the ICPC, Okor Odey.
According to Odey, investigations by the anti-graft agency uncovered a large-scale payroll fraud involving hundreds of non-existent public servants, with a total sum of N941,994,079.86 traced to accounts linked to the scheme.
He explained that a review of the IPPIS carried out in 2023 revealed the existence of numerous ghost workers embedded within the payrolls of several Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Odey added that following the findings, President Bola Tinubu approved a comprehensive audit of the payroll system.
The ICPC spokesperson further disclosed that a joint investigation conducted by the commission and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation in April 2025 led to the discovery of 587 suspected ghost workers on the IPPIS platform.
“Investigations revealed that fictitious IPPIS identities had been created for non-existent personnel across multiple MDAs, with salaries paid over extended periods into accounts belonging to individuals and companies,” Odey said.
“In many cases, the account names did not correspond with those of the purported employees, while some accounts received multiple salary payments simultaneously.”
He stated that the commission immediately placed Post No Debit (PND) restrictions on all identified accounts to freeze funds suspected to be proceeds of fraud.
According to the ICPC, the affected MDAs include the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Federal Ministries of Defence, Education, Agriculture and Rural Development, Works, Water Resources, and Interior.
Other institutions affected by the alleged fraud are 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.
Odey said a verification exercise conducted in 2025 cleared 120 civil servants after their identities and employment status were confirmed.
He, however, noted that 467 bank accounts remain linked to unverified individuals whose identities have yet to be established.
The ICPC spokesperson added that the N941.9 million currently frozen in the 467 accounts has now been forfeited to the Federal Government following the court order.
He also revealed that the commission published the names of 910 individuals suspected to have benefited from the alleged payroll fraud in two national newspapers on March 18, 2026.
The Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System is a centralised payroll platform introduced by the Federal Government to manage the salaries and records of employees in the federal public service.