PFIPC Probe: ICPC Recommends Prosecution, Uncovers Two Fresh Fake Agencies
Two additional fictitious federal agencies have been traced to the man at the centre of Nigeria’s most talked about impersonation scandal, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission disclosed on Thursday, deepening a case that has already dragged the Presidency, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the National Assembly and at least five federal offices into public scrutiny.
ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu, SAN, made the disclosure while briefing State House correspondents after submitting the commission’s interim investigation report to President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The submission came exactly 30 days after the President, through his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, ordered the commission on July 7, 2026 to conduct a comprehensive probe into the purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council and report back within a month.
According to the interim findings, Adeniyi Matthew Adeyemi, who presented himself as Director General of the council, was never appointed by the Federal Government, and the body itself had no legal existence. “Adeyemi Matthew was never appointed by the federal government or any authority of government,” Aliyu said, adding that the council “was never established by any law or executive order or other instrument of government.”
Investigators established that the appointment letter Adeyemi relied on was forged, and that the fake council took over the offices and official instruments of the defunct Presidential Economic Advisory Council. The ICPC said the group operated from the former PEAC premises and engaged in impersonation and false representation by exploiting gaps in verification procedures and weak coordination among government institutions. Police court papers filed earlier had placed the operation on the second floor of the Federal Secretariat Complex, Phase III, Abuja.
Beyond the council already in public view, the commission said Adeyemi created two more fictitious agencies. Aliyu named them as the FCT Investment Promotion Agency and a foreign investment promotion body, with some accounts of the briefing rendering the second as the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency and Public Private Partnership. “These agencies were created using forged legislative instruments and were used to open bank accounts for illegal activities,” he said, adding that two accounts were opened with a commercial bank.
Aliyu further disclosed that the name of the organisation was altered from Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council to Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, in what investigators believe was an attempt to widen its scope to include revenue generation and encroach on the mandate of legitimate investment promotion agencies.
Significantly, the commission found no evidence that public funds ever left the treasury. “The investigation found no funds were approved or disbursed for the fake PFIPC/PEAC, and there were no weaknesses in the State House or CBN system,” Aliyu said.
The report recommended the prosecution of Adeyemi, administrative sanctions against public officers whose acts of omission or negligence enabled the scheme, and reforms to tighten internal controls across ministries, departments and agencies. Officials from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, the Budget Office of the Federation and the National Information Technology Development Agency were identified in connection with the lapses.
Aliyu stressed that the exercise is not closed. “The report is interim and the investigation continues to uncover more details to file criminal charges against Adeyemi and his collaborators,” he said, adding that the President had been briefed and restated his administration’s commitment to transparency and accountability.
The scandal turns substantially on money that was budgeted but, by the commission’s account, never released. About ₦1.32 billion was allocated to the council in the 2026 Appropriation Act, a fact that first drew national attention to the matter. A separate figure of ₦27.3 billion, described in some accounts as ₦27.4 billion, was cited as a proposed take off grant.
Adeyemi, in a recorded interview with social media personality Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, said he approached the Budget Office of the Federation in December 2024 to seek inclusion in the 2025 budget. “I went to that Budget Office for the 2025 budget. I submitted the letter and everything that I wanted, but I was told it was already late,” he said, adding that he was told to wait for the next cycle. He insisted he was out of the picture by the time the allocation surfaced.
The House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the matter, chaired by Hon. Yusuf Adamu Gagdi, has since taken evidence from several institutions. The Central Bank of Nigeria told the panel that it opened two domiciliary accounts for the council in July 2025 only after a formal directive from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, stating that “those two accounts remain inactive with zero balance and have never been operated.” The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation testified that the council sought approval for its organisational structure in August 2025, but the request was turned down over incomplete documentation.
On Thursday, the State House told the same committee that it never requested a budget code from the Office of the Accountant General and had no knowledge of the council until media reports emerged. Federal Road Safety Corps boss, Shehu Mohammed, defended the issuance of seven official Federal Government number plates to the body, insisting the approvals followed established procedures based on documents that appeared genuine. A day earlier, a businessman told the panel he paid Adeyemi ₦400 million for contract facilitation.
The controversy escalated after Adeyemi alleged that the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, demanded 48 per cent of the proposed take off grant, received ₦400 million through a proxy, and requested a further ₦200 million for presidential approvals. Gbajabiamila denied the claims on oath, stating that he had no personal, official or professional relationship with Adeyemi, and filed a ₦15 billion defamation suit at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, seeking ₦10 billion in general damages, ₦5 billion in aggravated damages and ₦200 million as cost of action.
Adeyemi later admitted in the VeryDarkMan recording that he never met Gbajabiamila in person and could not confirm the identity of the person he spoke with by telephone. His lawyers have rejected what they describe as a one man fake agency narrative, arguing that several federal institutions recognised and dealt with the council before the investigations began. In an open letter dated July 13, 2026, Adeyemi urged the President to constitute an independent multi stakeholder panel, saying, “This directive is a vital first step, but the structural realities of this investigation compel me to speak out of a profound desire for absolute transparency.”
Gbajabiamila’s counsel, Jiti Ogunye, confirmed his client’s cooperation with the commission, stating that the Chief of Staff “responded to the invitation of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and appeared at about 15:00hrs on Monday, July 20, 2026.”
Two deaths hover over the file. Babatunde Tanimola, described by Adeyemi as the intermediary in the alleged transactions, was reported by the police to have died in a hotel fire in Utako, Abuja, on October 22, 2025. Senior advocate Femi Falana has publicly urged the Inspector General of Police to take direct charge of investigations into Tanimola’s death, alongside that of Habila, whose body was found on June 27, 2026 at the country home of the Minister of Works, David Umahi, in Uburu, Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State. Umahi has denied any wrongdoing, saying the deceased had a pre existing medical condition. Neither death has been judicially determined.
Adeyemi already faces an eight count charge of forgery, impersonation and conspiracy filed on November 27, 2025 by police prosecutor Wisdom Madaki before the Federal High Court, Abuja, in suit number FHC/ABJ/CR/562/2025. Arraignment stalled on June 16, 2026 when he was said to be indisposed, and he was later arrested in Ijebu Ijesa, Osun State, after allegedly jumping bail.
The case lands at a difficult moment for Nigeria’s anti corruption record. Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, released in February 2026, scored Nigeria 26 out of 100 for a second consecutive year and ranked the country 142nd out of 182, down two places from 140th, well below the global average of 43. The ICPC itself reported investigating 263 cases in 2025 against a target of 250, filing 61 in court, recording a 55.74 per cent conviction rate, and recovering ₦37.44 billion and $2.353 million. It also assessed 344 MDAs under its Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard and completed systems studies in 12 institutions, precisely the preventive tool now being recommended more widely.
The episode also revives long standing questions about the proliferation of federal bodies. The Steve Oronsaye Committee, which reported in 2012, identified 541 federal parastatals, agencies and commissions, of which 263 were statutory, and recommended deep rationalisation. President Tinubu approved implementation of aspects of the report in February 2024. That an entity outside that architecture could obtain office space, number plates, bank accounts and a budget line is the central puzzle lawmakers say they intend to resolve.
With the ICPC describing its report as interim and the House committee yet to conclude, the matter remains active before both the courts and the legislature. Nothing in the commission’s findings has been tested in court, and all persons named retain the presumption of innocence.