Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The Presidency has directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Department of State Services (DSS), and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to investigate and expose alleged internal collaborators who enabled Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew to operate a fictitious presidential agency, the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for an extended period.
In a statement on his verified X handle on Friday, July 3, 2026, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, said investigators from the three agencies have been tasked with unravelling the full extent of the collaboration that allowed Adeyemi to forge presidential appointment letters, maintain 34 bank accounts in the names of fictitious government bodies, host foreign ambassadors, and open a Central Bank of Nigeria account, all while parading himself as the Director-General of a non-existent body called the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council.
Ajayi described Adeyemi as an "irredeemable con artist" who is exploiting Nigerian public psychology regarding corruption to shield himself from criminal accountability by dragging the name of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, into his multi-billion-naira fraudulent enterprise. "In Nigeria, the easiest and most believable allegation anyone can throw at a public officer is corruption. Once that accusation is thrown into the mix, the water is polluted, the lines are blurred and everyone is kept busy arguing over distractions rather than the real issues," Ajayi wrote. "Matthew Adeniyi understands Nigerian public psychology and he is exploiting it expertly to shield himself. He is an irredeemable con artist who is attempting to drag the name of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, into his criminal enterprise. The Chief of Staff is simply his last straw."
The Presidency maintained that Adeyemi could not have operated for long without help from insiders. "What is not in doubt is that internal collaborators enabled Adeniyi to get this far. That is precisely what investigators from the DSS, the Police and the EFCC must now unravel," Ajayi stated. "The criminal network within the affected institutions must be dismantled and everyone found to have played a role should be arrested and prosecuted."
Ajayi also argued that much of the public debate had ignored the fact that government institutions detected the alleged fraud and acted on it. He said officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), working with officers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, first discovered inconsistencies in Adeyemi's operations and reported the matter to the appropriate authorities. "Contrary to the anything-goes narrative being promoted, it was the system itself that raised the red flag and dealt with it administratively," Ajayi said. "First, officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), the statutory agency responsible for investment promotion, together with officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, identified the anomaly and lodged complaints with the appropriate authorities for clarification. That is a system functioning as it should. It is a system capable of detecting an aberration."
The controversy surrounding the PFIPC deepened when the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, issued a public disclaimer on June 11, 2026, alerting the public, foreign missions, financial institutions, and multilateral organisations that the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council had no official standing and that no appointment had been made under its name. On July 1, 2026, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, revealed that Adeyemi had been charged with eight criminal counts at the Federal High Court since November 27, 2025, and that he maintained 34 bank accounts in the names of fictitious government agencies.
The Presidency has insisted that the case should not be framed as evidence of complicity at the highest levels of government but as an alleged fraud uncovered by the system itself. Ajayi acknowledged that many commentators have rightly pointed to the systemic failure that allowed such an elaborate fraudulent scheme to flourish, but he argued that the same system eventually detected the fraud and fished him out. "Daredevil criminals who operate around government institutions with the sole aim of pulling off spectacular heists are common across the world. Some succeed, many fail. The part many commentators have overlooked, however, is how that same system eventually detected the fraud and fished him out," he said.
Adeyemi is alleged to have created both the PFIPC and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) using forged documents purportedly linked to the Presidency. The PFIPC was reportedly allocated N1.302 billion in the 2026 national budget, raising serious questions about how a non-existent agency secured parliamentary approval and a budget line without detection.
As the investigation continues, the Presidency has made it clear that the focus must extend beyond Adeyemi to expose the internal network that enabled his operations. The EFCC, DSS, and Police are now under pressure to identify, arrest, and prosecute all government officials and institutions that may have aided the alleged scheme.
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