Whichever way one chooses to look at the recent developments around the scandalous revelation that a certain Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew illegally operated an alleged Federal Government agency, the Presidential Foreign Intervention Production Council (PFIPC), without insider collusion, remains unbelievable and a scandal of monumental proportions.
How can Prince Adeyemi create a fake government agency, appoint himself as DG, secure office space at the Federal Secretariat, open a CBN account in its name, get N1,302,978,784 allocation in the 2026 budget, and operate this long without being stopped?
How can he have the audacity to have summoned ambassadors to meetings, held strategic sessions with ministers, been a guest of the EFCC, and even represented Nigeria at international conferences without official seal or approval of the presidency? This is incredulous. How was it also possible that after he was arrested, arraigned in court, he still got his supposed fake agency budgetary allocations months after?
Stories of fraud and scandals are not new to us. They have come to stay, unfortunately, as a part of our everyday life as a nation. Nothing surprises us anymore when it comes to hearing stories of these vices both home and abroad. We all now seem inured to scandalous fraud stories that nothing surprises us anymore.
We may have heard of stories of fraudsters swindling people posing as government officials and contractors. We may have heard of tales of government officials abusing their offices and accepting kickbacks or defrauding people under the pretence of giving them appointments or contracts, but these all pale into insignificance when compared to the Prince Adeyemi scandal.
We have given ourselves an identity that now haunts us wherever we go, but the audacity and magnitude of this fraud are unreported or unprecedented, at least until now.
As it is, the only remedy and solution to suggest to the rest of the world that we are a nation of sane people is to openly and transparently investigate this and the culprits brought to book. This must not be swept under the carpet as we often do.
Prince Adeyemi, it’s reported, has denied being a conman, insisting that his official appointment letter was duly signed and that he got the appointment after having paid N400 million out of an expected N600 million demanded to secure him government appointment.
He was alleged to have said that the dispute between his agency and the presidency was as a result of disagreements arising from the formula for sharing the expected budgetary allocation to the agency.
The presidency, in its rebuttal, accused Prince Adeyemi of using forged government documents to mislead the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation into opening a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) account.
It accused Adeyemi of falsely presenting himself as the Director-General of a non-existent Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council/ Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC).
According to the statement, the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President first raised the alarm after officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council complained that another agency appeared to be operating at cross-purposes with it.
The Presidency said the Chief of Staff petitioned the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police on October 17, 2025, requesting an investigation.
The statement said that Adeyemi operated from an office at the Federal Secretariat Complex, Abuja, where he and his associates held meetings with foreign diplomats and Nigerian citizens while presenting themselves as officials of a legitimate government agency.
It further claimed that the group sought a note verbale from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to facilitate visa applications for some of its members.
According to Premium Times findings, in April 2025, Adeyemi wrote to the Accountant General of the Federation on PFIPC letterhead, requesting the deployment of staff to fill five vacancies, and also separate letter requesting the transfer of two named staff from the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President. These requests were all granted.
On August 28, 2025, three senior civil servants were officially posted to the PFIPC.
During the budget 2026 preparation window, budget code 0111062001, titled Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, was included in the 2026 executive budget bill, with an allocation of N1.3 billion.
After the October 17 Chief of Staff petitions to the DSS and Police, by October 22, Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola, the man who allegedly helped him procure the forged appointment letter, died in a mysterious fire at Kachi Hotel in Utako that never occurred.
Adeyemi was eventually arrested on October 27, 2025. He was charged in November 27, 2025, with an eight-count charge filed at the Federal High Court. Yet, having been arrested and charged to court, in December, when President Tinubu presented the 2026 Appropriation Bill to NASS, Budget code 0111062001 was already inside it.
Four clear months after in April 17, this year, Tinubu signed the 2026 Appropriation Act into law with Budget code 0111062001 and N1.3 billion allocated to the fictitious agency.
This is not just a case of a random conman but one with an experienced insider collusion.
Unfortunately, very little is expected from a judicial system that is itself struggling to free itself from the very low reputational image it has found itself.
However, what has to be made very clear is that answers must be provided as to how Adeyemi went this far alone as claimed by the Presidency.
How did he secure an office at the Federal Secretariat when some other, officially recognised agencies, are squatting in dilapidated buildings across Abuja, open an account with the CBN in the agency’s name with ease?
How did his agency budget pass through all the statutory checks within the presidency and the National Assembly undetected?
How did Prince Adeyemi successfully hold meetings with EFCC, diplomats, etc, even when his activities are supposedly illegal? How did he manage to secure the secondment of staff and appointment of over 300 employees without the knowledge of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Accountant-General’s Office, etc?
Who inserted Budget code 0111062001 and N1.3 billion allocated to the agency into the 2026 Appropriation Act?
Finally, while we are not foreclosing the fact that this might just be a case of a scam against the federal government but we are also saying that this could not have gone this far if Prince Adeyemi were just acting on his own.
Therefore, who are those insider collaborators? If the case in court unravels these and other mysteries around this case, we shall all see, in the coming months.
If also those involved will be duly punished, let us wait and see. But I have my doubts.
