PFIPC Riddle: Presidency Sends ICPC After Adeyemi
President Bola Tinubu has thrown the weight of the anti-corruption machinery behind an unusual national puzzle: how a body the Presidency swears does not exist managed to secure office space, open bank accounts and find its way into the country’s most important financial document.
In a directive issued on Tuesday, the President ordered the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to conduct a thorough investigation into the activities of the so-called Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council and submit a comprehensive report within 30 days. The order, conveyed in a statement by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, followed weeks of a widening controversy that has drawn in one of the most powerful figures in the Tinubu government.
According to the statement, the directive was occasioned by the discovery of the alleged fictitious council, “which was never established by the Federal Government of Nigeria and has no basis in any law, presidential instrument, executive approval, or other lawful act of Government.” It said one Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew “presented himself as the Director-General of the so-called PFIPC and falsely claimed to be a presidential appointee.”
The commission has been asked to examine a broad set of questions: the forged appointment letters and official documents allegedly used, the deployment of a false claim of presidential appointment to obtain official recognition, diplomatic support and visa facilitation, and the opening of multiple bank accounts in the names of purported government agencies. Investigators are further expected to trace “the source and movement of any funds involved,” and the role of any public officer, private individual, financial institution or intermediary that may have enabled the scheme. The President also directed the ICPC to identify the institutional weaknesses that allowed a fictitious body to acquire “an appearance of official legitimacy,” and to recommend safeguards against a recurrence.
The intervention did not emerge in a vacuum. The dispute traces back to June 11, when the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, publicly disowned the council and its purported director-general, warning Nigerians against dealing with anyone claiming to represent it. Adeyemi hit back, and at a press conference in late June alleged that Gbajabiamila had received N400 million through a proxy, demanded a further N200 million to facilitate his appointment, and sought 48 per cent of a proposed take-off grant. Gbajabiamila has firmly rejected the claims. Through his counsel, Kemi Pinheiro, SAN, the Chief of Staff has threatened a N10 billion defamation suit, describing the allegations as false, malicious and reckless, and insisting the two men have never met.
What has kept the matter alive is a single line in the nation’s finances. The 2026 Appropriation Act carries an entry titled Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council under the Presidency, with an allocation exceeding N1.3 billion, comprising roughly N803 million for personnel, N200 million for overhead and N300 million for capital expenditure. Adeyemi has pointed to this provision as proof that an agency signed into a budget by the President cannot credibly be called non-existent, a contradiction that opposition figures, civil society groups and human rights lawyer Femi Falana have seized upon in demanding an independent probe.
The affair carries echoes of previous accountability storms that have tested the administration’s transparency posture, from the suspended humanitarian ministry scandal to recurring questions over budget padding in the National Assembly. Each turned, as this one does, on the gap between official denial and paper trail.
Adeyemi is already standing trial before the Federal High Court in Abuja on an eight-count charge bordering on conspiracy, forgery and impersonation, with the matter listed for July 27. Authorities say investigators recovered forged documents and uncovered dozens of bank accounts allegedly linked to him. He maintains his innocence.
The Senate, for its part, has kept its distance. Its spokesman, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, acknowledged that the council appears in the 2026 budget but said the chamber had received no petition on the matter and considered it sub judice.
Tinubu, in his directive, stressed that “the integrity of the Presidency and the institutions of the Federal Government must be protected against impersonation, forgery, abuse of official identity and the exploitation of weaknesses in the public service,” ordering that all found culpable be treated strictly in accordance with the law.
For now, the clock is running. Within 30 days, the ICPC is expected to tell Nigerians whether they are looking at an elaborate forgery, a governance failure at the highest level, or something that sits uncomfortably between the two.