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Osun Workers Drag Adeleke Govt to EFCC, ICPC Over Alleged ₦13.7bn Ghost Workers Payroll Scandal

Published by admin on January 10th, 2026.

Osun Workers Drag Adeleke Govt to EFCC, ICPC Over Alleged ₦13.7bn Ghost Workers Payroll Scandal

HE Ademola Adeleke

• Insist Governor Must Clarify 8,452 Ghost Workers, Corruption Allegations Leveled by Audit Consultants

By Adekunle Alao

Civil servants under the aegis of the Osun Workers Union (OWU) have invited Nigeria’s two anti-corruption agencies—the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC)—to investigate the alleged payroll fraud in Osun State under the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke.
This follows revelations and allegations made on Friday at a press briefing by Sally Tibbot Consulting Limited, an audit firm hired by the Adeleke government in April 2023 to carry out a comprehensive verification, validation and re-engineering of the state’s payroll system covering civil servants, local government employees, education sector workers, tertiary institutions and pensioners.

The firm said it submitted its final audit report to Governor Adeleke on 27 June 2024, noting that the forensic audit established that only 29,004 staff and 17,918 pensioners were genuine, meaning that 8,452 were fake and ghost workers receiving salaries without valid employment records.

The company further explained that the authentic payroll reduced the state’s monthly wage bill from ₦4.48 billion to ₦3.34 billion, resulting in monthly savings of ₦1.14 billion and annual savings of ₦13.72 billion for the Osun State Government.
It added that despite the identified fraud in the payroll, the Osun State Government has continued to pay salaries to the ghost workers, thereby causing significant losses of public funds.

In a statement on Monday, the Organising Secretary of the Osun Workers Union (OWU), Comrade Gabriel Adeoye, said it was disturbing that the state government had failed to implement the audit report of a company it hired itself.

He said, “This disclosure by the audit firm has once again confirmed our consistent criticism of the lack of transparency in the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke. If the government knew it would not implement the consultants’ audit report, why did it hire them? Was it just a media stunt?”

Adeoye added that the allegation was weighty and troubling and should not be swept under the carpet, urging Governor Ademola Adeleke to come clean on the matter in order to save the state from the embarrassment the development could cause.

“His Excellency Governor Ademola Adeleke must get to the root of the matter and identify the officials responsible for this alleged payroll fraud. Are some government officials benefitting from this alleged racket? What is the role of the Head of Service in all this? The Osun workers want to know,” Adeoye stated.