The Osun State Government has dismissed allegations of a ₦13 billion payroll scam involving Sally Tibbot Limited, describing the claim as fabricated and sponsored by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In a statement issued on Friday, the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi, said there was no evidence of a ₦13 billion payroll fraud. He explained that a verification of the disputed audit report showed that more than two-thirds of individuals labelled as ghost workers were legitimate staff members with proper identification and documentation.
Alimi noted that Governor Ademola Adeleke is open to scrutiny by anti-corruption agencies, stressing that he initiated the staff audit to investigate alleged payroll irregularities inherited from the administration of former Governor Gboyega Oyetola. According to him, if any fraud exists, it would relate to the previous administration, as the audited payroll covered the period from 2018 to November 2023.
The commissioner added that the governor would welcome investigations by agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to help identify any genuine ghost workers. He said the call by Sally Tibbot for anti-corruption intervention was therefore warmly received, insisting the governor has nothing to hide.
Addressing concerns about the governor’s brother, Dr. Deji Adeleke, Alimi clarified that he was not part of the audit process but only intervened after receiving reports that genuine civil servants were being wrongly classified as ghost workers. He stated that the governor invited the consultant to Dr. Deji’s residence to validate the report following emerging concerns.
The statement further revealed that the audit process encountered difficulties when the consultant’s technical team admitted that the proposed replacement payroll system for Chams software had not been tested elsewhere. This prompted the formation of a review committee comprising representatives of Sally Tibbot and labour unions to address identified gaps.
According to the government, the review committee discovered major discrepancies in the consultant’s findings. Of the 8,448 workers initially declared absent, 8,015 were confirmed as active staff, while 433 were unreachable. Similarly, of 6,713 retirees tagged as ghost pensioners, 5,830 were verified, with 883 unaccounted for.
Alimi alleged that the consultant had inflated the number of ghost workers to 15,000 in a bid to secure about ₦2 billion in payment, but that the verified number of unresolved cases reduced the firm’s entitlement to about ₦47 million. He claimed that repeated invitations for the consultant to revalidate the list were ignored.
The government also stated that the Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University, Prof. Adeboye, along with several lecturers and staff members across state tertiary institutions, were wrongly declared ghost workers and are considering legal action.
Despite the controversy, the state government said it has implemented a new integrated payroll system and introduced technological reforms to sanitise the bureaucracy. It maintained that the allegations were politically motivated and insisted that the “APC-sponsored fake news” had failed.
