Public servants in Osun State who were labelled as ghost workers by Sally Tibbot Limited have resolved to institute legal action against the company and its lead consultant, accusing them of grave defamation and damage to long-standing professional careers within the state civil service.
The affected workers, drawn from multiple ministries, departments, agencies, and tertiary institutions, disclosed that despite repeated engagements with the state government to clarify their status, the consultant persisted in publicly branding them as non-existent employees. They described the allegation as a calculated act of character assassination and affirmed their readiness to seek judicial redress.
Their decision followed a media briefing by Sally Tibbot Limited in which the firm alleged that the Osun State Government was shielding ghost workers by declining to implement the outcome of a disputed staff audit exercise. The workers, however, countered that they had fully presented themselves for verification, were duly captured, and remained available to demonstrate their legitimacy as bona fide public servants with unblemished service records.
Anger among the workforce was further heightened by claims that the consultant continued to classify them as ghost workers even after verification. The workers accused the firm of deliberately mishandling the audit through what they described as maltreatment, inhumane conduct toward senior civil servants, and a refusal to decentralise the verification process. They alleged that the consultant approached the contract with ulterior motives aimed at defrauding the state and tarnishing the government’s image.
Those affected reportedly include the Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University, senior academics across polytechnics, professors, deans, provosts, and staff of more than ten government agencies and tertiary institutions that were allegedly excluded from the audit yet declared ghost workers.
According to the workers, the controversy reached an extreme when the consultant allegedly listed the state governor, deputy governor, secretary to the state government, and over two-thirds of political appointees as ghost workers an outcome they described as manifestly absurd and indicative of a fundamentally flawed process.
In response, the Osun State Government dismissed the allegation of a cover-up, describing the company’s press briefing as a subtle attempt at blackmail designed to coerce the state into accepting a fraudulent audit report. The government explained that the unusually high number of purported ghost workers prompted a re-verification exercise.
The re-verification, the government said, exposed significant inflation in the reported figures and confirmed that many individuals previously labelled as ghost workers were, in fact, legitimate employees of the state. It added that it was prepared to provide documentary proof of each worker’s existence if required, noting that the consultant neither requested such evidence nor submitted an acceptance letter for payment related to about 1,316 workers reportedly not sighted.
The government further stated that suspicions were reinforced by the consultant’s fee structure, which was tied to payroll savings, arguing that this created perverse incentives. It cited alleged high-handedness, exclusion of staff, and deliberate maltreatment during the audit as evidence of a process driven more by financial gain than institutional integrity.
While reiterating its commitment to sanitising the state payroll, the government maintained that it would not, in good conscience, remove legitimate employees or implement an audit report riddled with gaps, lapses, and credibility issues. It emphasised that reviewing an audit report prior to implementation is within its reach and justified the establishment of a verification committee as a necessary step toward ensuring transparency and protecting public interest.
Signed:
Oluomo Kolapo Alimi
Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment
