Presidency Says Adeyemi's Appointment Letter Was Forged, Traces Agency to Dormant Buhari-Era Body

Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.

The Presidency has unveiled explosive new details in the unfolding Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) scandal, alleging that Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, the disowned Director-General of the purported council, forged his appointment letter and exploited the name of a dormant Buhari-era government body to secure a staggering ₦1.3 billion budget allocation, office space at the Federal Secretariat, and the deployment of at least three civil servants. According to senior Presidency sources who spoke with Punch and other national dailies, the fraud succeeded because several government institutions failed to carry out proper due diligence, allowing a single individual to penetrate the highest levels of Nigeria's civil service and operate a fictitious agency for months before being exposed.

The Presidency's latest revelations centre on the alleged forgery of Adeyemi's appointment letter, dated March 8, 2024, which conveyed his appointment as Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) and claimed President Bola Tinubu approved the appointment effective March 1, 2024. The letter was written on what appeared to be State House letterhead and carried a signature placed above the name of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila. However, a Presidency source insisted that the letter was fake and that Gbajabiamila had neither written nor signed it. The source explained that the forgery was exposed in part by a missing telephone number on the State House letterhead, which raised immediate suspicion.

Crucially, the Presidency emphasised that the Chief of Staff lacks the constitutional authority to make such appointments. According to a senior official who spoke with Punch, appointments of directors-general and permanent secretaries are made by the President, with appointment letters issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), not the Chief of Staff. "The Chief of Staff has never appointed anyone at that level. All DGs and Permanent Secretaries, their appointments are from the President," the source said. The official added that Adeyemi exploited a bureaucratic loophole by presenting the forged letter to the civil service headquarters, where officials failed to verify that the Chief of Staff lacked the authority to make such appointments. "Where Adeniyi scammed everyone was that he forged a letter with the signature of the Chief of Staff, which was not even his signature because it was forged. It was not Gbajabiamila's signature," the source stated.

The investigation has also traced the origins of the fake agency to a dormant body established during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari. According to multiple reports, Adeyemi allegedly exploited the name of a defunct or inactive government entity that had been created years earlier but had since ceased operations. By reviving the name and presenting forged documents, he was able to convince government officials that the PFIPC was a legitimate agency under the Presidency. This allowed him to secure an Administrative Code Number (0111062001) in the National Chart of Accounts, open domiciliary accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria, and obtain a six-month provisional self-accounting status from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

The trail of correspondence between Adeyemi and top government agencies has shown how the alleged fictitious agency operated within the Federal Government system before it was exposed. On November 7, 2024, Adeyemi wrote to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation requesting office space, a request that was later forwarded to the EFCC for allocation. By April 2025, he had secured an office on the second floor of the Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja and was writing to the OAGF requesting accounting and audit staff. On August 28, 2025, at least three civil servants from the OAGF were deployed to the agency. The allocation of office space at the Federal Secretariat, according to a Presidency source, conferred a "very high level of legitimacy" on the alleged agency, making it easier to host meetings with diplomats and government officials.

The scandal began to unravel on October 16, 2025, when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote to Gbajabiamila and the National Security Adviser seeking clarification on Adeyemi's status after he held meetings with members of the diplomatic community without recourse to the ministry. In his reply on October 27, Gbajabiamila told the ministry that the PFIPC was fake and advised that any letter supposedly issued by the Chief of Staff should be cleared from his office before further action was taken. He subsequently petitioned the police and the Department of State Services to investigate Adeyemi. Despite this, the PFIPC still made it into the 2026 Appropriation Bill, which President Tinubu presented to the National Assembly on December 19, 2025, with a total allocation of ₦1,302,978,784.

The controversy has drawn widespread condemnation from civil society organisations and opposition figures. The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has requested certified documents relating to the approval of the N1.3 billion allocation, warning that it would commence legal action if the information is not released within seven days. The Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education has called for the immediate suspension of Gbajabiamila pending the outcome of an independent investigation. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has urged President Tinubu to order an independent investigation and identify those responsible for creating and funding the alleged agency.

As the Senate prepares to deliberate on the controversy when lawmakers reconvene for plenary on Tuesday, the PFIPC scandal continues to raise fundamental questions about institutional integrity, due diligence, and public accountability in Nigeria's governance architecture. The Presidency has directed security and anti-graft agencies to identify, arrest, and prosecute government officials who may have collaborated with Adeyemi. For now, the question remains: how did a forged letter and a dormant Buhari-era body succeed in penetrating the heart of Nigeria's administrative machinery and securing a N1.3 billion budget allocation?

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