MARCEL MBAMALU
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has submitted its interim report on the scandal surrounding the purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) to President Bola Tinubu.
The report, submitted exactly 30 days after the President ordered the investigation, clarifies that AdeniyiAdeyemi was never appointed by the Federal Government or any government authority, that PFIPC was never created by law, executive order or any other valid government instrument, and that the appointment letter, gazette and related documents used to establish the agency were forged.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe commission also said no evidence showed that the purported appointment letter originated from the Presidency. But these findings, important as they are, seem to answer a question Nigerians already knew.
From the beginning of the controversy, the public did not seriously dispute that Adeyemi had allegedly forged documents or that PFIPC was not a legitimate government agency. Indeed, the police had already investigated him, arrested him, filed an eight-count criminal charge against him and taken the matter before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Is the central question not how a man allegedly running a fictitious agency succeeded in making different arms and institutions of the Nigerian government treat that agency as real? That question becomes even more important when the history of PFIPC is traced, especially as the issue has distracted the current administration since 2024.
READ ALSO: Court Issues Bench Warrant for Alleged Fake PFIPC DG Adeniyi Adeyemi
The documentary trail examined by some investigative media, especially PREMIUM TIMES, begins in March 2024. A purported appointment letter claimed that Tinubu had approved Adeyemi’s appointment as Director-General of the PFIPC with effect from 1 March 2024.
On 30 September 2024, the domain pfipc.gov.ng was created by NITDA webmasters. It means a government-domain identity was therefore attached to an organisation the government now says never existed. Who requested it? What documents were submitted? Who verified those documents before the domain was created?
On 7 November 2024, Adeyemi wrote to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), requesting office accommodation for PFIPC. On 21 November, the OSGF forwarded the request to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), asking that the purported agency be considered for office space from recovered Federal Government properties.
At that point, this was no longer simply a private citizen carrying a forged appointment letter. How then did a fictitious agency obtain access to government premises? Who verified that it existed before the request was processed?
The process continued into 2025. In February last year, another purported State House letter conveyed approval for the take-off of PEAC/PFIPC with effect from 3 March 2025. The letter purportedly bore the signature of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and claimed that the council had been established under “Presidential Executive Order 5” of 24 February 2023. Gbajabiamila has denied writing or signing the letter, yet the document travelled through the system.
On 26 March 2025, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation approved a six-month provisional self-accounting status for PFIPC. That status was granted on the basis of documents presented by the purported agency. If physical verification was required, what exactly was verified? Was the physical office inspected?
On 24 June 2025, the OSGF’s Political and Economic Affairs Office invited Adeyemi, in his purported capacity as PFIPC’s Director-General, to join a Nigerian delegation to the Canada-Africa Fintech Summit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also later told the House committee that Adeyemi approached the ministry on several occasions seeking collaboration and endorsement for a World Investment Summit.
Although the ministry said it ultimately did not approve those requests and reported discrepancies to the appropriate authorities, how many government officials had interacted with PFIPC by this point?
On 29 July 2025, an official of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation wrote to the Central Bank of Nigeria requesting the creation of two domiciliary accounts for PFIPC. On 13 August, the CBN confirmed that it had created dollar and pound accounts for the purported agency.
The story became even more troubling on 28 August 2025, when officials were posted to the purported agency. Dauda Abdulhamid, Director of Administration at the OAGF, issued a posting involving more than 300 Treasury officers to various ministries, departments and agencies. Three of those officials were posted to PFIPC. The police later interviewed the three officers, who became prosecution witnesses.
How does a fake agency receive civil servants from the Federal Government? How many administrative steps were involved in posting those officers? Who approved the posting? Who confirmed the existence and staffing structure of PFIPC?
Were all these failures merely weaknesses? Were officials simply negligent? Or did some knowingly facilitate the operation? Did anyone benefit from it? Or were there people who deliberately chose not to ask the questions that should have been asked?
When the government knew, but the public did not.
The story began to unravel to the public in October 2025. On 17 October, Gbajabiamila wrote to the Inspector-General of Police and DSS Director-General, accusing Adeyemi of forgery and impersonation and requesting an investigation. This shows the government knew of the alleged fraud months before the June 2026 controversy.
Investigators examined Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola, whom Adeyemi said helped him obtain the appointment letter. Tanimola died at National Hospital on 22 October after a fire at Kachi Hotel, Abuja. Police interviewed his sister, the hotel proprietor and the burial pastor. Adeyemi later alleged Tanimola was an intermediary between him and Gbajabiamila, who denied knowing him and rejected the allegations.
On 27 October, the IGP Monitoring Unit arrested Adeyemi at his Federal Secretariat. Searches of his office and Suleja residence recovered correspondence with government institutions andtraced 34 bank accounts linked to him, including nine belonging to purported government agencies. This further raises verification questions.
Adeyemi had spent 23 days in detention before release on 19 November after submitting a medical report. On 27 November, police filed an eight-count charge against him and two others, Femi and Anu, who remained at large, for conspiracy, forgery and impersonation.
Since the criminal case began last year and preceded the ICPC investigation, when ICPC said he should be prosecuted, one ought to ask: do they mean another prosecution? Other than the one already in court? Which was repeatedly adjourned in February, April and June 2026, with Adeyemi citing illness. When it finally came up in July, and Mr Adeyemi failed to appear, Judge Mohammed Umar issued an arrest warrant. Within hours of the court issuing the warrant, the police arrested Adeyemi in Osun State.
The speed of the arrest also raises a legitimate question: if the prosecution and even Adeyemi’slawyer could not produce him in court, how did the police locate him within a few hours of the warrant? That does not, by itself, establish wrongdoing by the police. But it is a question that deserves an explanation, particularly because the court had just been told that his whereabouts were unknown.
What exactly were these “weaknesses”?
The most troubling institutional question became the budget. The 2026 Appropriation Act contained about N1.3 billion for the “Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council”: N803 million for personnel, N200 million for overheads and N300 million for capital expenditure. If PFIPC never existed, how did it enter the national budget?
The 2026 budget was presented by President Tinubu in December 2025, passed by the National Assembly in March 2026 and signed into law on 17 April 2026. The final Appropriation Act provided for N68.32 trillion in total expenditure.
Adeyemi said he neither prepared nor defended the budget because he was in police detention from 27 October to 19 November 2025. On 7 July 2026, the Senate said the National Assembly neither recommended nor inserted the N1.3 billion provision. But that only shifts the question: who requested it, which ministry processed it, who assigned the budget code, verified PFIPC, reviewed the provision and approved it?
That no money was disbursed does not explain why a fictitious agency appeared in an Appropriation Act signed by the President. That particular concern prompted President Tinubu to order the ICPC to investigate within 30 days.
Unlike the existing criminal case against Adeyemi, the ICPC investigation was expected to establish how the fraud worked. Instead, the commission largely repeated what the public already knew. If the investigation was incomplete, why was this not clearly communicated? And if it is ongoing, why recommend only administrative sanctions? The investigation must go beyond Adeyemi. Those who knowingly enabled the fraud should face appropriate criminal consequences.
Dr. Marcel Mbamalu is a distinguished communication scholar, journalist, and entrepreneur with three decades of experience in the media industry. He holds a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and serves as the publisher of Prime Business Africa, a renowned multimedia news platform catering to Nigeria and Africa's socio-economic needs.
Dr. Mbamalu's journalism career spans over two decades, during which he honed his skills at The Guardian Newspaper, rising to the position of senior editor. Notably, between 2018 and 2023, he collaborated with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Northeast Nigeria, training senior journalists on conflict reporting and health journalism.
Dr. Mbamalu's expertise has earned him international recognition. He was the sole African representative at the 2023 Jefferson Fellowship program, participating in a study tour of the United States and Asia (Japan and Hong Kong) on inclusion, income gaps, and migration issues.
In 2020, he was part of a global media team that covered the United States presidential election.
Dr. Mbamalu has attended prestigious media trainings, including the Bloomberg Financial Journalism Training and the Reuters/AfDB Training on "Effective Coverage of Infrastructural Development in Africa."
As a columnist for The Punch Newspaper, with insightful articles published in other prominent Nigerian dailies, including ThisDay, Leadership, The Sun, and The Guardian, Dr. Mbamalu regularly provides in-depth analysis on socio-political and economic issues.
