The Osun State Government has rejected allegations of a N13 billion payroll fraud, accusing auditing firm Sally Tibbot Limited of exaggerating figures by branding thousands of legitimate workers and retirees as ghost staff in a bid to secure a large commission.
In a statement issued in Osogbo on Friday, the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, said an internal verification of the consultant’s report showed that more than two-thirds of those listed as ghost workers were genuine employees with proper documentation.
The firm’s Chief Executive Officer, Sa’adat Bakrin-Ottun, had earlier alleged during a programme on Channels Television that the administration of Ademola Adeleke failed to implement the outcome of a staff verification exercise that purportedly uncovered payroll fraud.
Responding to the claims, Alimi said the consultant was originally engaged to sanitise the payroll inherited by the current administration but ended up classifying many active workers as ghost employees.
He stated that the government would welcome the identification of genuine ghost workers by anti-corruption agencies, noting that the audit under dispute covered the period between 2018 and November 2023.
According to him, the state has nothing to hide and is open to scrutiny by relevant authorities.
Alimi also dismissed suggestions that the governor’s elder brother, Deji Adeleke, influenced the process, explaining that his involvement was limited to raising concerns after receiving reports that legitimate civil servants were being wrongly flagged for dismissal.
The commissioner said attempts to validate the consultant’s findings stalled when the firm’s technical team admitted that the payroll system proposed to replace the existing software had not been previously tested, raising concerns among government officials.
A review committee later found significant discrepancies in the report.
Of the 8,448 workers said to be unseen, 8,015 were confirmed as active staff while 433 could not be reached.
Similarly, out of 6,713 retirees listed as ghost pensioners, 5,830 were verified, leaving 883 unaccounted for.
Alimi alleged that the consultant inflated the number of ghost workers to about 15,000 in an effort to justify a commission estimated at N2 billion.
With the revised figures showing fewer than 1,000 unreachable individuals, he said the firm’s entitlement dropped to about N47 million.
He added that repeated invitations for the firm to review and reconfirm its findings were ignored, accusing the consultant of holding on to what the government described as flawed figures.
Following the discrepancies, the state said it adopted a homegrown payroll reform and reaffirmed its readiness for intervention by anti-corruption agencies.
The dispute between the state government and Sally Tibbot Limited continues over the non-implementation of the staff audit report.
Efforts to obtain a response from Bakrin-Ottun were unsuccessful, as calls to her phone line did not connect and a WhatsApp message sent by reporters had not been answered at the time of filing the report.
- 10 ships arrive Lagos Ports with commodities - February 20, 2026
- Osun rejects N13bn payroll fraud claim, blames auditor - February 20, 2026
- Fire guts 100 stalls at Kano Industrial Complex - February 20, 2026
