Two years after the ICPC seized N24 billion meant for ghost workers’ pension, no one has come forward to claim the money or gone to court over it.
The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Dr Musa Aliyu, disclosed this on Thursday while speaking in Abuja at a lecture he delivered on “Anti-corruption Reforms, Economic Stability and Effective Communication” organized by Economic Confidential.
Aliyu said unpatriotic civil servants have been found enrolling their children and family members as ghost workers on government payroll.
He recalled that in 2024, the commission uncovered N24 billion earmarked for ghost workers’ pension. In one case, he said, a single individual enrolled 14 members of his family and was collecting 13 salaries.
“Up till now no single person has come out to claim the N24 billion or gone to court to claim ownership of the money,” the ICPC boss stated.
He said the commission will continue to investigate payroll fraud and ensure public funds are protected.
He declared that corruption remains the greatest problem confronting Nigeria at the moment and pleaded that it must be tackled with all seriousness, if Nigeria is to make a deserved progress.
He advocated that corruption must be seriously tackled with legal instrument as millions of dollars are been lost as bribes in the country.
He regretted that public officers who are supposed to be shining example to youths are neck-deep in the economic crime, using consultants as conduit pipe to carry out the corruption agenda.
He recalled one of the major corruption incidents stumbled upon by ICPC in 2012, involving $65 million which was supposed to be used to build houses for public officers to ease their accomodation crisis.
Aliyu noted that rather than using the huge fund for the purpose, the people involved opted to pocket the money by abandoning the purpose of the release of the fund.
Highlighting the dangers of prevalent corruption, the ICPC boss said that unless it is effectively tackled, the economy will not attract investment because according to him, no investor will invest in any country where corruption flourishes.
Aliyu assured that the agency will henceforth focus on strengthening the weak system that has refused to make the country’s economy grow at the deserved pace.
He noted with regret the recently uncovered fake agency, adding that if the country has had a strong system, such agency would have been detected with due diligence.
He also noted that as a result of weak system in the country, projects are being inserted into government agencies without execution thereby robbing the country of value for money released for such projects, adding that such contractors would henceforth be forced to execute the job once identified.
To fight against corruption, the ICPC boss appealed to all Nigerians to go back to their primary schools and campaign for pupils on dangers of corruption, adding that such campaigns will inspire the pupils to rise against corruption in the future.
“Nigeria can capture corruption and solid foundation will come up for the country on integrity. Damaging effect of corruption is too much and must not be allowed to thrive. ICPC will now focus on the weak system that is promoting corruption through constituency projects, ghost workers and sanitize the entire system.”