The whole fuss about the allegedly factitious Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) and Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) is emblematic of how vulnerable the nation’s institutional frameworks could be and how venal and feckless some of those driving the machinery of government can be.
Indeed, whichever way the pendulum of the ongoing legislative and presidential-directed probes of the scandal eventually swings, the red signal already flashed by the puzzlers hallmarking the saga is that the proverbial tripod upon which the whole gamut of government, especially the civil service, rests may be wobbly.
We are flammoxed at the ease with which the institutional bulwarks of the civil service, even at the highest level, can be penetrated and compromised, assuming, for the purpose of argument, that the allegations of fakery and forgery leveled against the principal culprit, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, are true.
According to the facts in the public domain, Prince Adeyemi is alleged to have operated nonexistent government agencies called the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) and Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), complete with a ₦1.3 billion budget allocation, office space in the Federal Secretariat Complex, opening of domiciliary accounts at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and interactions with diplomats, successfully posing as the Director-General of the two agencies.
The ‘fake’ D-G allegedly forged a presidential appointment letter purportedly signed by the Chief of Staff (CoS) to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, alongside a fake gazette and acts of parliament.
He allegedly managed to successfully use these documents to interface with high-level civil service offices such as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Head of Service, Budget Office and foreign diplomats.
After the Presidency and Gbajabiamila disowned the two agencies and claimed they was a scam, Adeyemi hit back by addressing a press conference, alleging that he paid a ₦400 million bribe through a proxy to the CoS to secure his position. He added that Gbajabiamila demanded further kickbacks, precisely 48 per cent of N27.4 billion takeoff grant.
The CoS was said to be the one who blew the lid off the alleged phoney agencies in October, 2025 after he received complaints from officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) about an agency acting at cross purposes against NIPC.
He reportedly wrote to both the Police and the Directorate of State Security (DSS), requesting them to thoroughly investigate Adeyemi and his agencies.
Gbajabiamila has eventually slammed a massive ₦15 billion defamation lawsuit on Adeyemi over what he described as the “malicious” bribery and kickback allegations which the ‘fake’ DG leveled against him. He demanded a public apology and retraction.
President Bola Tinubu also ordered the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the alleged fake agencies and submit its report within 30 days.
The Police have tracked down and rearrested Adeyemi after he went into hiding and skipped court proceedings. His prosecution for forgery and impersonation is underway at the Federal High Court. He is scheduled to be formally arraigned today.
So many puzzlers thrown up by the alleged scandal are begging to be unraveled out. One: Assuming the agencies are truly nonexistent, how could the budgetary allocation of N1.3billion have escaped the watertight, eagle-eyed scrutiny that ought to trail the budget preparations, legislative screening, debates, vetting and passage as well as executive assent and bulldozed or railroaded its way into the 2026 Appropriation Act?
Two: How could nonexistent agencies have succeeded in getting allocation into an expansive office space in a very idyllic, high brow Federal Secretarial Complex, in an environment assailed by acute dearth of office and residential accommodation?
We are talking about an exotic office accommodation literally decked with all the official appurtenances or emblems — flags, coat of arms, vehicles emblazoned with official logos — bespeaking government’s imprimaturs!
Three: How could agencies not created by the government have successfully got two domiciliary accounts opened at the highest bank in the land, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), scaling through a supposedly tough due diligence?
Four: How could phantom agencies have succeeded in getting domain approval for the website they were using from the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), a government agency responsible for developing and regulating Nigeria’s IT sector, before the ‘fake’ DG was arrested? How did the agency create the domain? With or without due diligence?
Five: Following the CoS’s petition, the embattled DG was reportedly arrested on October 23, 2025. Police then began investigating him and concluded their investigations on November 13, 2025. But charges were not preferred against him until November 27.
Nothing happened, even after that until June, 2026 when the scandal became public knowledge and Adeyemi was eventually declared wanted. His formal arraignment is eventually scheduled to come up today (July 27,2026), eight months after! Why the tardiness and lethargy?
Six: From all indications, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), the Office of the National Security Agency (ONSA), the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigeria Police Force and Directorate of State Services (DSS) were said to be aware of the ‘fake’ DG and his PFIPC as well as PEAC as far back as October and November,2025. Why did they not alert the public about the agencies’ activities until June, 2026, thus allowing Adeyemi to continue his subterfuges, assuming the DG truly illegitimate.
Seven: When the idea was mulled at the plenary of the Senate for the probe of the phantom agencies, the upper chamber of the National Assembly demurred. The senators resolved not to probe the scandal.
The Senate spokesman, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, explaining why the controversial N1.3 billion budgetary allocation appropriated for PFIPC and PEAC in the 2026 budget escaped the senators’ scrutiny and why they decided to distance themselves from the scandal, said last Tuesday that the amount was ”neither recommended nor inserted” by the National Assembly.
The upper chamber said lawmakers are not constitutionally responsible for conducting security checks on individuals appointed to head government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and therefore cannot be held responsible for the controversy.
The excuse of the senators for refusing to probe the scandal is sheer balderdash and legislative hubris. Instead of expiating their guilt and apologizing accordingly for the unpardonable infraction of allowing the alleged ‘extraneous’ N1.3 billion budgetary provision to escape their scrutiny, they are busy sermonising.
It is rather unbecoming of the otherwise distinguished members of the Senate. They should appreciate that they are not talking to numpties and stop playing into the gallery. The House of Representatives has taken up the gauntlet by raising an ad hoc panel to probe the scandal. And interesting snippets are being unfurled as the probe progresses. The green chamber deserves the thumbs up for its intrepid and patriotic action.
As the ICPC and the House panel continue their separate probes, we suggest that they pay attention to and unravel the following puzzlers, which we believe, will assist in establishing the true status of PFIPC and PEAC:
One: Who approved the letter believed to have emanated from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation(OAGF) requesting the opening of two domiciliary accounts at the CBN for PFIPC and PEAC?
Two: How exactly did the CBN create the two accounts? Was the required Know Your Customers due diligence conducted or not before opening those accounts? Who approved the creation of the accounts at the CBN, even though the apex bank said they were never operated?
Three: It is an extant rule that no allocation can enter the budget without a ‘budget code.’ Who approved the ‘budget code’at the Budget Office for the insertion and appropriation of the N1.3 billion vote for PFIPC and PEAC, even though the Budget Office claimed no fathing was released for spending?
Four: Who approved the letter emanating from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) directing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to allocate an office space to supposedly non-existent agencies?
Five: Who approved the letter emanating from OAGF approving the self-accounting status requested by the embattled DG, Adeyemi?
Six: Who approved the deployment of 300 civil servants to different Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDGs), including three to the now disowned PFIPC?
Seven: The circumstances under which Adeyemi’s mystery ‘proxy’, Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola, died remain largely inchoate and suspect. The alleged ‘intermediary’ or ‘proxy’ linked to Adeyemi’s allegedly factitious PFIPC and PEAC reportedly died in a fire incident at Kachi Hotel located in the Utako district of Abuja on October 22, 2025, just five days before Adeyemi was initially picked up by the authorities.
Tanimola’s reported death denied security operatives the opportunity to question him (Tanimola) regarding the disputed appointment documents and transactions that Adeyemi claimed were sourced or carried out through him (Tanimola).
Who was this shadowy Tanimola? Did he truly die of fire accident, if he ever existed? Or was he silenced because he knew too much? Or was he as phantom as the allegedly ’fake’ PFIPC and PEAC? So many missing links begging to be raveled out.
Let the ICPC explore inter-agency collaboration with a view to engaging the best of our sleuths to untie the knots of these puzzlers and establish the veracity or otherwise of all the claims and counterclaims regarding this scandal. Let the probes be thorough, transparent and impartial.
Let us know if all those letters and documents, which opened the doors in the highest places in the civil service for Adeyemi, were truly forged; or if those who signed the letters and gave approvals actually acted in cahoots with the allegedly fake DG to perpetrate one of the greatest perfidious acts in recent history to heist a large chunk of the proverbial ‘national cake;’ or if those involved were just acting innocuously in sheer tardiness, dereliction and gross incompetence.
Everyone eventually indicted should face the music. Let the authorities use the reports of the probes to clean up the Augean stable and rid the civil service of dregs and misfits.
