The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has recommended the prosecution of the self-styled Director-General of the fake Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, as well as administrative sanctions against public officials whose negligence allegedly enabled the operations of the fictitious agency.
ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Adamu (SAN), disclosed this on Thursday after presenting the commission’s interim investigation report to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, exactly 30 days after the President directed the anti-corruption agency to probe the activities of the fake organisation.
Adamu said the commission’s findings established that Adeyemi was never appointed by the Federal Government and that the PFIPC was never created by any law, executive order or other valid government instrument.
He also said the commission recommended institutional reforms to strengthen internal controls across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to prevent similar incidents in future.
‘Some of the recommendations which we have submitted to Mr. President are, one, that Mr. Adeniyi Adeyemi should be prosecuted. Two, administrative sanctions be imposed on public officers whose acts of omission and negligence facilitated the illegal operation of PFIPC/PEAC.
‘Our investigation found that some public officers failed to do due diligence and failed to adhere to the standard procedures that are supposed to be complied with in their ministries and departments, and that gave Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew the opportunity to conduct this illegal act.
‘We have also recommended institutional reforms because there is need for stronger internal controls in the MDAs to block this kind of illegal activity from happening again’, Adamu said.
The ICPC chairman said President Tinubu had directed the commission on July 7 to investigate the matter and submit its findings within 30 days, a timeline the agency met with the submission of the interim report.
He described the President’s decision to make the findings public as a demonstration of transparency and accountability.
‘The President has taken the right decision in the spirit of transparency and accountability and directed ICPC to address the media for the benefit of Nigerians, so that Nigerians will know what our investigation discovered’, he said.
Adamu disclosed that investigators established that the appointment letter presented by Adeyemi was forged, alongside several other documents used to legitimise the operations of the fake agency.
‘We have discovered and it has been established that Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew was never appointed by the Federal Government or any authority of government. The Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council… was never established by any law or executive order or any other valid instrument of government, and the appointment letter presented by Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew was completely forged alongside similar documents used to perpetrate the illegal activities of the fake agency’, he said.
According to him, the gazette relied upon by the suspect to justify the existence of the agency was also forged.
‘If you recall, there was a gazette, a law which was forged as an instrument which he used to support the fake agency. That gazette or the law that was gazetted is an illegal law that has never passed through the processes as provided by the law’, he stated.
The ICPC chairman further revealed that the fake organisation illegally appropriated the identity and facilities of the former Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC).
He said investigators found that the office formerly occupied by PEAC was unlawfully accessed after its lock was broken.
‘What we discovered is that the office used by the fake agency through Adeyemi Matthew was the office of PEAC. The lock was broken and he had access to the office. That was how he was able to get inside that office.
‘Also, false projection, false representation, widespread impersonation and a wide range of illegal activities were perpetrated by the fake DG of the fake agency, Adeniyi Adeyemi’, he added.
Adamu said the investigation uncovered weaknesses in verification procedures, inter-agency oversight and government administrative processes, some of which were allegedly exploited through negligence and connivance by certain officials.
‘Our internal report found that there are weaknesses in verification, inter-agency oversight and government processes. Those weaknesses were exploited by Adeniyi Adeyemi with some level of negligence and connivance,’ he said.
However, he said investigators found no evidence that Federal Government funds were allocated or released to the fake agency.
‘Our investigation found that no funds of the Federal Government were approved or disbursed to the fake PFIPC/PEAC. We also discovered that there were no weaknesses found in the systems of the State House and the Central Bank of Nigeria in our investigation. Also, the fake appointment letter of Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew did not originate from the Presidency’, Adamu explained.
The ICPC also uncovered two additional fictitious government agencies allegedly created by Adeyemi to expand his activities.
According to the commission, the suspect established the FCT Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA) and the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency and Public Private Partnership (FIPA-PPP), using forged legislative instruments presented as enabling laws.
‘The ICPC discovered that Adeniyi Adeyemi also created two additional fictitious government agencies apart from the one already known in the public domain.
‘Our investigation unravelled two other fake government agencies, namely FCT Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA), and Foreign Investment Promotion Agency and Public Private Partnership (FIPA-PPP).
‘To facilitate the creation of the additional two fake agencies, he used forged legislative instruments styled as enabling Acts and used them to support the opening of bank accounts. We discovered that he opened two bank accounts in a commercial bank, which he used in these illegal activities’, Adamu said.
He explained that after gaining access to the PEAC office, Adeyemi altered the name of the fake organisation from Foreign Investment Promotion Council to Foreign Intervention Promotion Council in an attempt to broaden its activities into areas reserved for revenue-generating government agencies.
Responding to questions from journalists, the ICPC chairman confirmed that investigators had interrogated Adeyemi and obtained his statement.
‘Yes, we did. He’s among the persons that we have interacted with, and we have taken statements. What he told us we have noted, and we have drawn our findings based on that.
‘We are going on with the investigation, which is a criminal investigation, and we are trying to round it up and see how we are going to file the charges’, he said.
He declined to comment on allegations involving about N400 million, saying the matter forms part of the ongoing criminal investigation.
‘For the issue of the N400 million, I don’t want to go into that allegation, which is criminal. Once we finish everything and we are going to court, people will see what we really discovered in our investigation on that,’ he said.
Adamu also disclosed that the commission had engaged several government institutions during the investigation, including the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, the Budget Office and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
He said interactions with the institutions exposed procedural weaknesses that contributed to the activities of the fake agency.
The ICPC chairman stressed that the report submitted to the President was only an interim one, adding that investigations into Adeyemi and his collaborators would continue until sufficient evidence was assembled for criminal prosecution.
‘This report, like I said, is an interim. We have continued with the investigation of the activities of Mr. Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew and his collaborators, so that we unravel more, so that we can file criminal charges against him that can stand the test of time before a court of competent jurisdiction,’ he said.
He added that President Tinubu acknowledged receipt of the interim report and commended the commission for completing the assignment within the stipulated timeframe.