Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has launched a blistering attack on the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government, declaring that the escalating scandal surrounding Chief of Staff to the President Femi Gbajabiamila and the so-called Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) represents a damning revelation of incompetence, negligence, and institutional collapse at the highest levels of the Nigerian state. In a press statement issued on Sunday, 5 July 2026, the PDP's Interim National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ini Ememobong, asserted that the grave accusations levelled against Gbajabiamila by Prince Adeniyi Matthew, alongside the admissions contained in the response issued by Presidential Spokesperson Bayo Onanuga, have confirmed what many Nigerians had long suspected: that the APC-led Federal Government is running the country with alarming recklessness, where nepotism and cronyism have displaced merit, and impunity has become standard practice administered in a manner akin to a criminal enterprise.
The controversy erupted when Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, who had been parading himself as Director-General of the PFIPC and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), alleged that Gbajabiamila solicited and received financial inducements from him in exchange for facilitating his appointment. In a detailed public statement, Adeyemi claimed that the Chief of Staff received ₦400 million through a proxy and demanded an additional ₦200 million to secure the appointment. He further alleged that Gbajabiamila requested 48 per cent of the agency's take-off grant, estimated at more than ₦27 billion, a demand he said he rejected. The Presidency, through Bayo Onanuga, did not directly deny the allegation of bribery; instead, it parried the claims, describing Adeyemi as an impostor and a fraudster who forged his way into the highest levels of government.
The PDP's statement highlighted the troubling paradox at the heart of the Presidency's defence. "If the Presidency's account is correct, that Prince Matthew is an impostor, then it means the Federal Government is so porous and vulnerable—an admission that the country has been brazenly defrauded because institutional gatekeepers entrusted with protecting our collective patrimony are either grossly incompetent or thoroughly distracted from the responsibilities of governance," Ememobong stated. "If, on the other hand, Prince Matthew's account is accurate, that the Chief of Staff solicited and actually received bribes to facilitate his appointment, then this is yet another act of shameless corruption added to a long and growing queue of unchallenged corrupt officials in this administration. Either way this pendulum swings, the Nigerian people lose."
The PDP questioned how an alleged impostor could operate freely and undetected at the highest level of government, securing office space at the Federal Secretariat complex, having staff posted to him, receiving budgetary allocations, operating Central Bank-registered accounts, and conducting official business with institutions including the EFCC and various security agencies. According to reports, Adeyemi allegedly operated 34 bank accounts linked to fictitious government agencies and fraudulently opened a Central Bank account using forged documents. The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation processed requests for office space and CBN accounts based on letters from Adeyemi, believing them to have originated from a legitimate agency under the Nigerian presidency.
The PDP's statement drew attention to what it described as a troubling pattern of institutional failure emanating from the Presidential Villa under this administration. "From the appointment of deceased persons into government offices, to the inclusion of undeserving individuals on the presidential pardon list, the N800 billion Progressive Governors Forum scandal, and numerous other avoidable blunders. This administration has demonstrated a troubling pattern of institutional failure," Ememobong declared. The party argued that any responsible government confronted with this scale of institutional breakdown would immediately commission an independent forensic investigation, suspend the key officials implicated, implement systemic reforms to prevent a recurrence, issue an unreserved public apology, and consider the resignation of those found culpable. Instead, the PDP alleged, the APC-led Federal Government appears to be pursuing a covert internal review, dismissing legitimate public concerns by talking down to citizens, and hoping that the passage of time will erase the anomaly from public memory.
The PFIPC scandal has drawn widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, has accused the Presidency of attempting to explain away the scandal while inadvertently exposing a far more disturbing reality under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's administration. In a statement on Thursday, 2 July 2026, Atiku said the response by Presidential Spokesperson Bayo Onanuga was not a defence of the government but a public confession of institutional collapse. "The Presidency now wants Nigerians to believe that one private citizen single-handedly forged presidential documents, impersonated senior government officials, established an office inside the Federal Secretariat, allegedly opened dozens of bank accounts, hosted foreign ambassadors without diplomatic clearance, secured official recognition across several government circles, and all but embedded a phantom agency into the machinery of government without a single insider aiding him," Atiku stated. "That explanation demands far greater faith than the scandal itself."
The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has also called for Gbajabiamila's suspension over the alleged scandal, while the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has asked President Tinubu to investigate Gbajabiamila and listed ten institutions for probe. The Kwankwasiyya Movement has demanded a full public explanation over the alleged budgetary allocation to the council, arguing that the controversy had gone beyond the actions of one individual and had become a major issue of public accountability. A coalition of civil society organisations has called for an independent investigation into the budgetary allocations linked to the purported agency, while BudgIT has also demanded a probe of the N1.3 billion PFIPC budget allocation.
The Presidency has maintained that the PFIPC never existed and that Gbajabiamila issued a public disclaimer on 11 June 2026 informing foreign missions, financial institutions, and international organisations that the council had no official status. Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, has described Adeyemi as "an irredeemable con artist" who understands public perceptions about corruption and was allegedly exploiting them by dragging Gbajabiamila into the controversy to shield himself from criminal liability. Ajayi has called on investigators from the DSS, the Nigeria Police Force, and the EFCC to identify and prosecute those within government institutions who allegedly assisted Adeyemi in carrying out the scheme. Adeyemi has already been arraigned before the Federal High Court in Abuja on an eight-count charge bordering on fraud and forgery and is expected to return to court on 27 July 2026.
The scandal has raised fundamental questions about the integrity of Nigeria's budget process, legislative oversight, and public financial management. The 2026 Appropriation Act explicitly lists "Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council" with code 0111062001 and a total allocation of ₦1,302,978,784. If the agency never existed, as the Presidency insists, how did it find its way into the national budget? Who prepared the budget estimates bearing its name? Which ministry submitted them? Which officials defended those estimates before the National Assembly? Which committees scrutinised them? Which lawmakers approved them? These questions, raised by Atiku and echoed by the PDP and civil society organisations, remain unanswered. As the PDP's statement concluded, the Nigerian people are the ultimate losers in this scandal, whether through the diversion of public funds or the collapse of institutional safeguards meant to protect the nation's patrimony.
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