Ghost Payroll Heist: Court orders forfeiture of ₦942m loot hidden in 909 bank accounts
Maureen Aguta
Nigeria’s anti-corruption war recorded a major victory on Wednesday as the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the final forfeiture of ₦941,994,079.86 recovered from 909 bank accounts linked to a sprawling payroll fraud uncovered under the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
The recovered funds, traced to accounts spread across 17 financial institutions, were forfeited to the Federal Government following an application by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
A Certified True Copy of the judgment delivered by Justice Binta Fatima Nyako on July 13, 2026, exclusively obtained by PRNigeria, showed that the court permanently vested the funds in the Federal Republic of Nigeria after finding them to be reasonably suspected proceeds of unlawful activities.
The forfeiture order marks one of the largest recoveries arising from the ICPC’s ongoing crackdown on payroll fraud and ghost worker schemes within Nigeria’s public service.
“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 IPPIS Payroll scam in the year 2024,” Justice Nyako ruled.
The order, subsequently signed and issued under the seal of the court by the Registrar, Gideon Waya, followed a Motion on Notice filed by the ICPC on March 26, 2026, in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/156/2026.
The Commission’s application, filed through its counsel, Fatima Abdullahi Bendi, was supported by an affidavit deposed to by Idris Abubakar, an official of the anti-graft agency, detailing investigations that uncovered suspicious payroll-related transactions across hundreds of bank accounts.
Court documents revealed that the 909 respondents maintained accounts in at least 17 financial institutions, including Access Bank, Ecobank, FCMB, Fidelity Bank, First Bank, GTBank, Jaiz Bank, Keystone Bank, NPF Microfinance Bank, Polaris Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Sterling Bank, Union Bank, Unity Bank, UBA, Wema Bank and Zenith Bank.
The first respondent listed in the court documents is Arilewola Olusanya Matthew, an account holder with Access Bank.
Investigators uncovered a complex web of transactions involving multiple accounts operated by some of the respondents across different banks—a pattern commonly associated with the layering and movement of illicit funds to conceal their origin.
The documents further showed that the respondents comprised individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, including persons bearing titles such as “Dr.” and “Mrs.”, while some of the accounts were domiciled with NPF Microfinance Bank, suggesting that the investigation extended to personnel connected with the security sector.
The IPPIS was introduced by the Federal Government as a flagship reform initiative aimed at centralising salary payments across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), eliminating ghost workers and plugging leakages in the public payroll system.
Ironically, investigators discovered that the same platform designed to curb fraud had allegedly been exploited through sophisticated schemes involving payroll manipulation, ghost worker arrangements and unlawful salary payments.
According to the court documents, the funds were initially preserved in the ICPC Recovery Account pending judicial determination after investigators established reasonable grounds to suspect that they constituted proceeds of unlawful activities.
Justice Nyako’s judgment contained two principal orders: the final forfeiture of the entire ₦941.99 million recovered during the investigation and the permanent vesting of the funds already domiciled in the ICPC Recovery Account in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The ruling underscores the judiciary’s continued support for asset recovery efforts and reinforces the legal framework empowering anti-corruption agencies to seize and permanently recover proceeds of crime.
The 2024 payroll fraud investigation ranks among the ICPC’s broadest operations in recent years, spanning hundreds of bank accounts and multiple financial institutions nationwide.
Although the Commission had yet to issue an official public statement on the judgment as of press time, the court documents confirm that the recovery process has been concluded, with the ₦941,994,079.86 now formally forfeited to the Federal Government.
The latest recovery once again highlights the persistent challenge of payroll fraud in Nigeria’s public sector and the enormous scale of illicit financial leakages that continue to undermine public finances despite years of reforms aimed at sanitising government payroll systems.