ABUJA, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian government claimed on Wednesday that it has sacked 50,000 "ghost workers" from the federal payroll, a big step in its fight against corruption.

Nigeria will make a "huge" saving of 200 billion Nigerian naira (around 635 million U.S. dollars) this year from cutting out these "ghost workers," said Garba Shehu, the government spokesperson, on Twitter.

Shehu also revealed that 11 people "championing the syndicate of the ghost workers" have been handed over to the authorities and some of them have already been "undergoing trial."

The initiative is part of an effort by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who won the presidential election last May largely by his anti-corruption stance.

The anti-corruption audit uses bank verification numbers to crack down on public salary fraud.

Nigeria's economy has been plagued with fraud. The government is hoping to reduce its expanding budget deficit by this anti-corruption drive.