Nigeria gets rid of 50,000 government 'ghost workers'

The Nigerian government has removed the names of 50,000 ghost workers from its payroll, saving as much as 200 billion naira (637 million dollars), a presidential spokesman told DPA Wednesday.

"The ghost names were found in several government establishments where they over bloating salaries and the pension bills," presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said.

"We are trying to recover the huge amount of money that has been illegally collected with the ghost names," he said, adding that 11 people have been arrested so far, of whom four have already been charged.

All the names that were uncovered from February to date have been deleted from the government's pay records.

President Muhammadu Buhari came to power last year with a pledge to fight corruption which is endemic in the oil-rich country.