- Fresh Questions Deepen Mystery
MORE than eight months after security agencies uncovered what the Presidency describes as an elaborate web of forgery, impersonation and official deception surrounding a non-existent presidential agency, the scandal refuses to fade. Instead, with every fresh disclosure, it appears to expose even deeper cracks within Nigeria’s bureaucracy, raising troubling questions about how an allegedly fictitious government institution managed to operate so openly within the corridors of power.
The latest twist came on Tuesday when the Presidency released its most detailed account yet of the affair involving Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, a man accused of presenting himself as the Director-General of what was variously called the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council; entities the Federal Government insists never existed.
Rather than putting the controversy to rest, however, the lengthy statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has intensified public scrutiny by laying bare a chain of events that appears almost inconceivable in a functioning bureaucracy.
If the councils were fictitious, as the Presidency maintains, how did they secure office accommodation inside the Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja? Who allocated the office? Who authorised its occupation? How did officials, diplomats and visitors find themselves attending meetings organised by a body that allegedly had no legal existence?
Equally puzzling is the revelation that the suspect allegedly succeeded in opening a Central Bank of Nigeria account after, according to police findings cited by the Presidency, misleading the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation with forged government documents.
That disclosure inevitably raises another critical question: who processed the documentation, and how did Nigeria’s financial safeguards fail to detect what investigators now describe as an elaborate forgery?
The statement is also silent on allegations that the purported council found its way into federal budget documents, an issue that has fuelled political debate in recent weeks and further widened speculation about possible bureaucratic complicity extending beyond the accused himself.
The Presidency’s account begins with an attempt to establish that the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President was not complicit but, rather, the institution that first uncovered the alleged fraud.
According to the statement, officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission first raised concerns after discovering another body appearing to perform functions similar to theirs.
Those complaints, Onanuga alleges in his statement, prompted the Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, to petition the Department of State Services and the Nigeria Police Force on October 17, 2025.
“The attention of this office has been drawn to the activities of certain individuals and groups engaged in the forgery of official appointment letters purportedly issued from my office,” the Chief of Staff was said to have written, alleging that forged documents bearing falsified signatures, official seals and reference numbers had been used to create appointments into non-existent government entities.
“The fake documents… have been used to claim leadership appointments to non-existent entities, with particular reference to the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council,” the petition stated.
The Chief of Staff informed investigators that “the aforementioned entity under the leadership of one Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew as Director-General is said to have an office at the Federal Secretariat Complex Phase III, 2nd Floor.”
According to the petition, the group had gone far beyond merely claiming to exist. “They have been parading themselves as a legitimate government agency, hosting meetings with both foreigners and Nigerian citizens, and even going so far as to request a note verbale from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the United States of America to facilitate visas for some of their staff.”
Describing the situation as one capable of undermining the integrity of the Presidency itself, the Chief of Staff warned that “the above development not only constitutes a serious criminal act but also undermines the integrity of the Presidency and the credibility of official government communication.”
He consequently urged security agencies to “initiate a thorough investigation to identify and apprehend those involved and also to uncover the network facilitating the forgery.”
According to the Presidency, copies of the forged appointment letter, requests made to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and photographs obtained from the organisation’s website accompanied the petition submitted to investigators.
By then, however, suspicions had already spread beyond the Presidency.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had reportedly become alarmed after Adeyemi convened a meeting with ambassadors at the Wells Carlton Hotel in Abuja on October 10, 2025, allegedly without informing or obtaining the approval of the ministry.
In a letter dated October 15, 2025 and signed by Ambassador Anderson Madubuike, the ministry sought clarification from both the Office of the National Security Adviser and the Office of the Chief of Staff.
“This act contravenes extant rules and regulations guiding diplomatic practices globally,” the ministry warned.
The correspondence triggered a flurry of official communications across government.
On October 20, the Office of the National Security Adviser forwarded the ministry’s concerns to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
Nine days later, the OSGF wrote to the Chief of Staff requesting clarification, explaining that “this has become expedient owing to several requests from governmental and non-governmental bodies seeking to ascertain the status of the appointment under consideration.”
Even before receiving that request, the Chief of Staff had already written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs categorically denying any knowledge of Adeyemi or the purported council.
The Presidency stressed that such a denial was inevitable because the agency itself never existed.
It further noted that the Chief of Staff neither issues appointment letters nor possesses constitutional authority to make federal appointments, responsibilities which fall under the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF).
Responding formally to the OSGF on November 5, the Chief of Staff again rejected the claims.
“Prince Adeniyi Matthew, Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, is unknown to any office, nor do we have any dealings with the said council,” he wrote.
He added: “My attention was drawn to a letter of this purported application, which is fake, and my office has instructed the police and other relevant security agencies to carry out investigations on the person and the entity he claims to represent.”
By then, police investigations had already begun. According to the Presidency, Adeyemi was arrested on October 27, 2025 at the office he allegedly occupied inside the Federal Secretariat Complex.
Searches conducted there and at his Suleja residence reportedly uncovered numerous documents investigators regarded as forged official records.
During interrogation, the Presidency said, Adeyemi claimed that one Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola had helped procure the fake appointment letter.
Police investigations later established that Tanimola had died in a fire incident at Kachi Hotel in Abuja on October 22, five days before Adeyemi’s arrest. Officers reportedly confirmed the death after viewing the body at the mortuary.
The Presidency said investigators ultimately concluded that the council was fictitious, that the appointment letter had been forged, and that Adeyemi falsely represented himself as a presidential appointee while attempting to secure diplomatic assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for visa applications.
Investigators also uncovered what they described as an extensive financial network. According to the statement, Adeyemi allegedly operated 34 bank accounts, including nine opened in the names of fictitious agencies such as the FCT Investment Promotion Agency and Public Private Partnership (FIPA-APP).
Even more remarkably, police concluded that the suspect had succeeded in opening an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria after allegedly deceiving the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation with forged documents.
Although investigators stated that no government funds were transferred into the account, the revelation has inevitably shifted attention to the procedures that enabled such an account to be created in the first place.
The Presidency quoted the police investigation as concluding that “the act of the suspect constitutes criminal forgery, impersonation and obtaining by false pretence, thereby bringing the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President and the Presidency to disrepute before the public and international community.”
Police subsequently filed an eight-count charge before the Federal High Court in Abuja against Adeyemi and two alleged accomplices on November 27, 2025.
The Presidency said the case is scheduled to come up again on July 27.
According to the statement, the latest controversy arose after Adeyemi, while on police bail, publicly claimed that the Chief of Staff had personally appointed him as Director-General of the non-existent agency.
The Presidency said those claims directly contradicted his earlier statement to investigators, prompting another disclaimer from the Office of the Chief of Staff on June 8.
Seeking to portray the accused as a serial impostor, the Presidency also recalled an incident in 2016 when Adeyemi allegedly presented himself as President-General of the World Youth Organisation, claiming it was affiliated with the United Nations before the UN reportedly denied the existence of such an organisation.
While urging politicians and members of the public not to embrace what it described as Adeyemi’s narrative, the Presidency maintained that the matter remains before the court and should be allowed to run its judicial course.
Questions Remain
Yet, despite the detailed timeline released on Tuesday, fundamental questions remain unanswered.
Beyond determining whether Adeyemi forged documents and falsely assumed public office, investigators may ultimately have to explain how a non-existent presidential council allegedly secured office accommodation in a federal secretariat, interacted with ambassadors, sought diplomatic privileges, opened a Central Bank account, operated dozens of bank accounts and reportedly found its way into official government processes before the deception was exposed.
Until those institutional questions are answered, the affair is likely to remain not merely a criminal prosecution of one individual but one of the most extraordinary and politically-sensitive cases of apparent bureaucratic failure – and possible complicity – to confront the Federal Government in recent years.
