The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has cleared the Presidency of any involvement in the appointment of the purported Director-General, Adeniyi Adeyemi and creation of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC).
The commission said the appointment letter presented by Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew was forged and did not originate from the State House.
The chairman of the ICPC, Musa Adamu Aliyu, disclosed this yesterday after submitting the interim report of the commission’s investigation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said: ‘The ICPC discovered that Adeyemi also created two additional fictitious government agencies, apart from the one that is known in the public domain. Our investigation unraveled two other fake government agencies, namely FCT Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA) and Foreign Investment Promotion Agency and Public Private Partnership (FIPA-PPP).’
Tinubu had, on July 7, directed the ICPC to investigate the activities of the council and submit its findings within 30 days.
Aliyu said investigations established that Adeyemi ‘was never appointed by the federal government or any authority of government,’ he said.
He added that the council ‘was never established by any law, executive order or other valid instrument of government.’
He said Adeyemi appropriated the identity of the defunct Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), illegally occupied its office and used forged government documents to carry out the activities of the fake agency.
He also said investigators discovered that the office used by the fake council was unlawfully accessed after its lock was broken.
It would be recalled that while appearing before the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee that investigated the PFIPC, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation had acknowledged granting official administrative approvals to the ‘phantom’ council based on documents allegedly later found to be forged.
On July 29, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Esther Walson-Jack, told the committee that her office issued an ‘authorised establishment’ and a recruitment waiver after receiving what was purported to be the council’s establishment Act and the appointment letter of its Director-General.
The ICPC chairman said it was also established that no federal government funds were approved or disbursed to the agency.
‘Our investigation found that weaknesses in verification, inter-agency oversight and government processes were exploited by Adeyemi with some level of negligence,’ he said.
State House disowns agency
The State House on Thursday distanced itself from the PFIPC, telling the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee investigating the ‘phantom’ council that it neither created it nor initiated any correspondence relating to its budget.
Permanent Secretary, State House, represented by the Director of Administration, Abdulkadir Idris, said the Presidency had no knowledge of the council until reports about it surfaced in the media.
Appearing before the committee, Idris said: ‘We did not send any correspondence or any request to the Office of the Accountant-General in respect of this council. We didn’t even know anything about this council. We never heard about it until we started seeing it in the media.
‘It is not our statutory responsibility to seek approval or justification for the creation of the PFIPC.’
The committee had invited the Permanent Secretary over documents purportedly originating from the State House requesting the creation of a budget code for the council, which lawmakers suspected was instrumental to securing budgetary allocations for the organisation.
But Idris dismissed the documents as fake, insisting that neither the signatory nor the office indicated on the letters exists in the State House.
He specifically denied the existence of one Akande Adewale who allegedly signed the disputed correspondence as Director of Administration and Support Services.
‘I am the Director of Administration in the State House. When the letter was shown to us, I saw it was signed in November 2024. At that time, the Director of Administration was Mrs. Aderonke Jaiyesimi, who retired in January 2025.
‘I presented to the Nigeria Police the list of Directors of Administration in the State House from 2003 till date. There is no name resembling Akande Adewale in our records,’ Idris said.
He further told lawmakers that the State House had no department known as the Directorate of Administration and Support Services.
Idris said he and the Permanent Secretary were invited by the Nigeria Police National Cybercrime Centre after the controversy broke, where they presented official records to aid ongoing investigations.
During the hearing, the committee’s chairman, Yusuf Gagdi, confronted the witness with copies of letters allegedly written by the State House to the Accountant-General requesting a budget code for the PFIPC.
He said another letter from the Accountant-General’s Office appeared to acknowledge the request and bore a handwritten receipt stamp purportedly from the State House.
But Idris maintained that neither he nor the Permanent Secretary received such correspondence.
‘We are not in possession of any such documents. We did not write those letters, and we did not receive any response of that nature,’ he insisted.
He noted that appointments of directors-general of federal agencies are political appointments processed through the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), not the State House.
We approved 7 number plates to PFIPC – FRSC
The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Shehu Mohammed, on Thursday told the House’s ad-hoc committee that following the ongoing investigation, the FRSC had commenced the process of retrieving all the official number plates allocated to the PFIPC.
Mohammed said the FRSC issued seven official government number plates to the council after following what it believed were established verification procedures.
He explained that the application was accompanied by documents purportedly showing that the organisation had been legally established.
‘Our standard operating procedure requires every ministry, department or agency requesting official government number plates to submit a formal application, after which we verify the authenticity of the request before approval,’ he said.
He said the request was received in April 2025 from an office described as the Presidential Economic Advisory Council and was supported with establishment documents and a list of chassis numbers for the vehicles.
‘As part of the verification process, our officials visited the office address presented to us and found it operational. Based on the documents and the verification carried out, we approved seven official government number plates,’ he said.
‘We have already begun administrative processes to retrieve all the official government vehicle number plates issued to the agency and have strengthened our internal verification mechanism to prevent a recurrence,’ he said.
The chairman of the committee, Gagdi, questioned the credibility of the documents relied upon by the FRSC, pointing out that the purported mandate of the council carried no official federal government insignia or security features.
Gagdi also noted that the document listed President Tinubu, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and several serving ministers as members of the council’s board, describing the composition as suspicious.
‘Does this look normal to you?’ the chairman asked.
Responding, the Corps Marshal, responded: ‘It does not’,admitting that the document should have raised concerns.
Mohammed also confirmed that the seven vehicles registered for the council were brand new vehicles that had not previously existed in the FRSC database.
He admitted that the PFIPC case had exposed weaknesses in the agency’s verification process, describing it as an isolated incident from which the commission had learnt valuable lessons.
‘This is the first time we have encountered a case like this. It is now an experience for us, and we are strengthening our intelligence and verification processes so that it will never happen again,’ he said.
C’ttee fixes joint hearing, silent on Adeyemi’s appearance
The committee yesterday adjourned its sitting to next Wednesday at 12 noon, when all the government agencies that have testified so far are expected to appear for a joint session.
Its chairman, Gagdi, said the next hearing would bring together representatives of the affected institutions to jointly reconcile discrepancies in the documentary evidence before the panel.
‘We want to interact with certain people together, not one-on-one. We want the Head of the Civil Service, the Accountant-General, the State House and all other relevant agencies to be here at the same time so that we can establish exactly where the alleged infractions started and identify the weaknesses in each institution,’ he said.
He also said that the joint session would allow the committee to trace the chain of official actions that allegedly enabled the council to obtain government recognition, office accommodation, budgetary allocation and other official privileges.
The adjournment, however, leaves unanswered one of the questions surrounding the investigation, which is when the purported Director-General of the PFIPC, Adeyemi Adeniyi, will finally appear before the panel.
The issue has remained a subject of public interest since the committee disclosed at an earlier sitting that it had established contact with Adeyemi at an undisclosed location and considered his testimony crucial to determining how the purported council allegedly secured official recognition, office accommodation and budgetary provisions despite government insistence that it was never lawfully established.
Last week, the committee had directed the Inspector-General of Police to produce Adeyemi before the lawmakers. But the police representatives told the panel that they could not comply because he was being held under a valid remand order of the Federal High Court. They explained that releasing him without the court’s authorisation would amount to a violation of the subsisting judicial order and requested the committee to obtain the necessary court warrant. The committee accepted the explanation and resolved to seek the court’s approval for his appearance.
CISLAC seeks sanctions for indicted officials
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has called for a broader probe into the operations of the PFIPC, saying accountability should not end with the prosecution of its purported Director-General.
Speaking to Daily Trust yesterday, CISLAC Executive Director, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, commended the ICPC for concluding its investigation, but emphasised that all public officials whose actions or negligence enabled the operations of the fake agency should face appropriate sanctions.
He said those who facilitated the opening of the agency’s bank accounts, approved office accommodation, processed its budget and other official dealings should not escape scrutiny.
‘Beyond just the administrative action against all the people that are involved, none of them should be spared. None of them should be politically protected. They all have committed crimes and therefore there must not be punishment for only one person,’ Rafsanjani said.
He maintained that it would have been impossible for one individual to carry out the alleged fraud without the cooperation or negligence of public officials, adding that those found culpable should face severe consequences rather than ‘light administrative inquiry.’
Rafsanjani also called on the leadership of the National Assembly to apologise to Nigerians for approving budgetary allocations for the council despite its non-existent legal status.
On the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee’s decision to question the purported DG in private rather than during a public hearing, Rafsanjani said the move would further erode public confidence in the legislature.
‘The National Assembly is always diminishing public confidence and trust of Nigerians. Why do you want to do a secret hearing when other witnesses were invited publicly? We do not support this secret hearing or secret investigation. If they are not hiding anything, let them come and do everything openly,’ he said.
He urged the Presidency to ensure that the ICPC’s recommendations are implemented without favouritism, warning against selective justice in the handling of the case.
On its part, the Connected Development (CODE) said the findings of the ICPC underscored the need for stronger transparency, accountability and institutional reforms across government.
In an interview with the Communications Manager, Stephen Akinfala, the organisation said the ICPC’s investigation exposed weaknesses in verification processes, inter-agency coordination and oversight.
CODE noted that the findings reinforced its long-standing advocacy for improved public financial management, transparent budgeting, open government and citizen oversight through its Follow The Money initiative.
Family opposes Adeyemi’s closed-door interrogation
Adeyemi’s family was reported to have alleged that members of the committee attempted to question him in police custody without the presence of his lawyers.
Adeyemi’s brother, Peter Adeyemi, reportedly alleged yesterday that committee members visited the detention facility where the suspect was being held but that he declined to answer questions because his legal representatives were not present.
He was quoted as saying that Adeyemi was willing to defend himself but wanted to do so publicly, just as the allegations against him had been made in open hearings.
The development followed a statement issued on Wednesday by Adeyemi’s lawyer, Ademola Oyedokun, rejecting the committee’s reported plan to question his client at an undisclosed location while in police custody.
According to the statement, the defence team welcomed the House investigation into the alleged establishment and operations of the PFIPC but opposed any closed-door interrogation, arguing that their client should be given the opportunity to respond to the allegations in a public hearing where other witnesses had testified.
The committee has yet to publicly respond to the allegations by Adeyemi’s family or his legal team. While, the chairman of the committee, Rep. Yusuf Gagdi, was announcing that all agencies that have appeared before the panel would return for a joint session next Wednesday, he was silent on Adeyemi. He did not say if Adeyemi would be produced to testify before the lawmakers or not.