Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee investigating the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) has declared the appointment letter presented by the agency's self-acclaimed Director-General, Adeniyi Adeyemi, as fake, concluding that the entire establishment was built on a web of forged documents. The committee's Chairman, Yusuf Gagdi, made the declaration on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, during the continuation of the probe in Abuja, stating that findings from multiple government agencies had confirmed that both the appointment letter and the purported Act establishing the council were not genuine.
"It was established that the so-called letter of appointment was fake, confirmed by different agencies, and the Act presented to the Head of Service was equally fake, forged by the DG; it was established," Gagdi told the hearing. The committee's findings represent a significant breakthrough in the investigation into how the phantom agency, which the Presidency has publicly disowned, managed to secure office accommodation at the Phase III Federal Secretariat in Abuja and receive a ₦1.32 billion allocation in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Esther Walson-Jack, who appeared before the committee for the second time on Wednesday, conceded that her office had failed to carry out adequate due diligence before issuing key approvals to the purported agency. Walson-Jack acknowledged that her office had relied on documents later discovered to be fake in granting an authorised establishment and recruitment waiver to the council. "We now, having seen all the facts and observed all the documents, concede that we ought to have carried out more due diligence in the discharge of the duties of the office in issuing an authorised establishment and a recruitment waiver to the PEAC/PFIPC," she told lawmakers.
The Head of Service explained that officials of the purported agency had presented themselves as representatives of a newly established federal body during the 2025 Annual Manpower Budget Defence exercise, accompanied by what appeared to be an Establishment Act and a letter appointing a Director-General. She admitted that under cross-examination, she had immediately recognised that the Establishment Act was not authentic. "I requested to see the documents myself and I saw that the Establishment Act was not really an authentic Act. I have almost 30 years of legal practice experience and immediately I saw it, I knew it was not," she said. She further acknowledged discrepancies in the appointment letter purportedly issued by the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President after comparing it with genuine correspondence. "I'm not a forensic expert, but I can clearly see that the signatures are not the same," she stated.
The committee chairman, however, went further, revealing that forensic analysis by the Nigeria Police had already confirmed that the signatures were entirely different. "The police forensic department has already analysed the signatures and confirmed that those signatures are not the same. In fact, according to them, there was not even an attempt to imitate the signature," Gagdi said. He added that investigations had established that the appointment letter was fake and that the purported Act establishing the agency was equally fabricated. "If something is forged, there will be an attempt to imitate the signature. But in this case, the signatures are completely different. So I will not call it forged; I will say it is fake," the chairman declared.
The committee further alleged that the fake Establishment Act lacked all the mandatory features of a valid Act of the National Assembly. "Our Acts have citation numbers, Supreme Court numbers, Gazette numbers and Gazette titles. The Act presented here has none of those features," Gagdi said. The committee has so far uncovered 29 allegedly forged documents, including purported approvals from the State House, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the Ministry of Finance, and other government institutions.
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, had earlier told the committee that the Office of the Accountant-General had received a request in November 2024, purportedly from the State House, seeking the creation of an administrative code for the council to facilitate budgeting, accounting, and financial reporting. He said the request, written on State House letterhead, appeared genuine, prompting the treasury to create the code and respond to the State House on November 29, 2024. However, Ogunjimi alleged that the response never reached the State House because it was intercepted by Adeyemi. "Unfortunately, as events unfolded, it was discovered that that letter did not get to the State House. It was hijacked, precisely by the same man who claimed to be the director-general," he said.
The accountant-general further disclosed that the office later discovered that all documents submitted by the promoters of the council were allegedly forged. "What the fake agency did was to submit a fake Act — so we can call it fake now because we have seen it to be fake — purportedly enacted by the National Assembly, a fake letter of appointment; everything that was submitted to the leadership in treasury was fake," he said. He explained that treasury officials processed the request in good faith because it appeared to have originated from the Presidency.
Despite the mounting evidence, Adeniyi Adeyemi was notably absent from the hearing. The committee had on Monday, July 27, directed the Inspector-General of Police to produce him within 48 hours, describing the establishment and operation of the purported council as a serious breach. Assistant Commissioner of Police Bashir Abdullahi, who represented the IGP at the hearing, told the committee that the police had already filed an eight-count charge against Adeyemi before a Federal High Court, cautioning against disclosures that could prejudice the ongoing criminal proceedings. The committee, however, insisted that Adeyemi's appearance was necessary to clarify how the council obtained official recognition and processed government correspondence.
The PFIPC scandal first came to public attention when the Presidency issued a statement on July 7, 2026, denying the existence of the council and directing the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the matter. President Bola Tinubu ordered the ICPC to conduct a thorough investigation into the activities of the "Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council" and all related matters, directing that the investigation be concluded and a comprehensive report submitted to him within 30 days. The President's directive followed the discovery of the fictitious PFIPC, which he said was never established by the Federal Government and had no basis in any law, presidential instrument, executive approval, or other lawful act of government.
The investigation has exposed significant vulnerabilities in Nigeria's public service system, where forged documents and counterfeit correspondence were able to secure official recognition, government accommodation, and a multi-billion naira budget allocation. The Head of Service's admission of due diligence failure has raised serious questions about the effectiveness of verification processes within the civil service. As the committee continues its work, the focus will now shift to identifying all those involved in the alleged scheme and ensuring that the loopholes that allowed such a sophisticated fraud to operate are closed. For now, the House committee's declaration that the PFIPC Director-General's appointment letter was fake has confirmed what the Presidency had long suspected: that the entire agency was a phantom, built on a foundation of lies and forged documents.
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