Osun APC Seeks Probe of Alleged N13bn Payroll Fraud, Adeleke Welcomes Agency Review

The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Osun State has called on anti-corruption agencies to investigate an alleged payroll fraud involving over N13 billion under the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke.

The party made the call in a statement signed by its Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, alleging that a forensic audit of the Osun State civil service uncovered payments to thousands of non-existent workers.

InfoStride News gathered that at a press conference held on Friday, January 9, 2025, Jiti Ogunye, legal counsel to the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of SALLY TIBBOT Consulting Limited, Sa’adaat A. Bakrin-Ottu, disclosed that the firm’s audit identified 8,452 alleged ghost workers on the state payroll.

According to Ogunye, the forensic review revealed that more than N13 billion was allegedly paid annually to the non-existent workers.

He explained that the executive brief submitted to Governor Adeleke showed that the January 2023 payroll for mainstream workers and pensioners stood at N4.48 billion, based on payments made by CHAMS to 37,456 workers and 17,918 pensioners.

“Following a comprehensive staff audit, payroll reengineering and validation exercise, the genuine monthly payroll was revised to N3.34 billion, with an actual workforce of 29,004 staff and 17,918 pensioners, thereby indicating an excess of 8,452 names,” Ogunye said.

He added that the exercise, conducted between June 2022 and April 2023, allegedly resulted in monthly savings of N1.14 billion, amounting to about N13.7 billion annually for the Osun State Government.

Ogunye said the firm submitted its full report to the governor on June 27, 2024, and publicly presented its findings and recommendations in Osogbo on July 10, 2024.

He further alleged that despite repeated demands for the implementation of the recommendations and payment for the concluded assignment, the firm had received no response from the state government.

Instead, he said, the government embarked on a revalidation exercise to review the report.

The legal counsel also claimed that members of the consulting firm’s management had received threats following their insistence on the implementation of the audit recommendations.

Reacting, the Osun APC urged the Nigeria Police to investigate the alleged threats and called on statutory anti-corruption agencies to probe the claims surrounding the reported N13 billion payroll payments.

The party said it expected the state government to address the allegations and clarify the status of the audit recommendations.

Meanwhile, Governor Adeleke has welcomed calls for anti-corruption agencies to review the state staff audit report.

In a statement issued on Saturday by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, the governor said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, were free to examine the report and the processes behind it.

Adeleke noted that any such review would concern payroll and personnel records inherited from the administration of former governor Gboyega Oyetola.

Also on Saturday, the Osun State Government, through the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, dismissed allegations of ghost workers in the state public service as levelled by Sally Tibbot Consulting (Nig.) Ltd.

The state government described the company’s recent press briefing as an attempt to blackmail the administration into accepting a disputed audit report, adding that the unusually high number of alleged ghost workers necessitated a re-verification exercise, which allegedly revealed significant inflation in the figures initially submitted by the consultant.