Reps Order IGP to Produce Alleged Fake Council DG

Lawmakers probing the disputed Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council on Monday ordered the Inspector General of Police, Olatunji Disu, to produce the self styled Director General of the body, Adeniyi Adeyemi, before them by noon on Wednesday, escalating a scandal that has already drawn in senior figures within the presidency.

The directive came during a resumed investigative hearing of the House of Representatives ad hoc committee at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja. Assistant Commissioner of Police Bashir Abdullahi, who represented the IGP, was instructed to guarantee the suspect’s appearance to help lawmakers verify contested documents at the centre of the inquiry.

“This committee clearly needs the suspected DG to appear before this committee. People’s names are involved. People’s integrity are involved. Institutional names are involved. Institutional integrity is involved,” the committee chairman, Yusuf Gagdi, said, ruling that the appearance was “not an option now.”

At the heart of the matter is how the PFIPC, which the Federal Government insists was never legally established, secured office space in Phase III of the Federal Secretariat Complex and an allocation of ₦1.32bn in the 2026 Appropriation Act. The committee, inaugurated last week under Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution, is tracing the point at which the allocation entered the budget passed by the National Assembly. Records before the panel indicate the body operated from the complex between November 2024 and October 2025.

Abdullahi told the panel that the police had already filed an eight count charge bordering on conspiracy and fraud against Adeyemi at the Federal High Court late in 2025, and that the suspect had been arrested and arraigned. “The case is ongoing,” he said, while cautioning the committee against disclosures that could prejudice the trial or the broader investigation.

Investigators traced the case to October 17, 2025, when the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President petitioned security agencies, alleging that Adeyemi fraudulently presented himself as Director General of both the PFIPC and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council. A separate petition raised similar claims. The police said they had identified about 29 allegedly forged documents, including purported approvals from the State House, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Ministry of Finance, several of which affected agencies have already disowned before the committee.

A pointed moment came when the panel compared signatures on documents said to have originated from the Chief of Staff’s office with authentic correspondence obtained by investigators. Asked whether they matched, the police witness replied, “They are not the same,” a finding Gagdi said reinforced suspicion that official State House papers, and even an Act of the National Assembly, may have been forged.

The confrontation forms part of a widening inquiry. President Bola Tinubu on July 7 directed the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to investigate the council, which his spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, described as fictitious. The ICPC has since questioned Adeyemi in detention at the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre in Abuja, where he is accused of using forged letters, seeking diplomatic recognition, requesting visa facilitation and opening bank accounts in the names of purported agencies.

Adeyemi has alleged that the Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, facilitated his appointment in expectation of financial reward, a claim Gbajabiamila has denied and challenged in a lawsuit. His lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, confirmed that Gbajabiamila honoured an ICPC invitation before returning to his duties. The presidency has dismissed Adeyemi as a fraudster.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also distanced itself, with its permanent secretary, Ambassador Dunoma Ahmed, telling lawmakers it never recognised the council and had queried the National Security Adviser over suspicious letters. The committee has summoned the Foreign Affairs Minister and the NSA, and says its final report may recommend further security action.