How does a fake agency secure a budget code and open bank accounts?
In Nigeria, a phantom government agency — complete with forged documents, diplomatic overtures, and a budget line — has prompted President Tinubu to order a thirty-day ICPC investigation into how an elaborate fiction was dressed in the clothing of the state. The affair raises questions that reach beyond one man's audacity: how does a non-existent institution obtain official recognition, open bank accounts, and secure a federal budget code without the complicity — or catastrophic negligence — of those entrusted to guard the gates of governance? At its heart, this is a story about the vulnerability of institutional trust, and the ease with which the appearance of authority can be mistaken for authority itself.
- A man claiming false presidential appointment built an entire phantom agency — forged letters, bank accounts, diplomatic requests — and it worked long enough to reach the federal budget.
- Allegations that the President's own Chief of Staff accepted ₦400 million to facilitate the scheme and demanded nearly half of a ₦1.3 billion budget have turned a fraud case into a political crisis at the heart of the executive.
- Gbajabiamila has struck back with a ₦10 billion defamation suit and a 72-hour ultimatum, while the Senate has deliberately stepped aside, calling it an executive-branch dispute unfit for legislative intervention.
- Police hunting the principal suspect instead questioned and briefly detained his elderly father in Ogbomoso, drawing condemnation from Atiku Abubakar, Femi Falana, and the Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum as an unlawful substituted arrest.
- Former SGF Babachir Lawal has pointed to systemic failure: a fake agency that cleared the Budget Office of the Federation could not have done so alone, suggesting insider collaboration runs deeper than one fraudster.
- The ICPC now has thirty days to trace forged documents, follow the money, and expose every official, institution, or intermediary that allowed a fiction to be funded by the Nigerian state.
President Bola Tinubu has directed the ICPC to investigate a government agency that never legally existed — the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council — which was allegedly operated by Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew using forged appointment letters and official documents. Adeyemi presented himself as the council's director-general, using that false identity to pursue diplomatic recognition, visa facilitation, and the opening of multiple bank accounts. The President has given the commission thirty days to determine how the scheme was constructed, who enabled it, and what institutional failures allowed it to advance as far as it did — including, apparently, obtaining a federal budget code.
The case has grown considerably more volatile with Adeyemi's allegation that Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila collected ₦400 million to facilitate his appointment and subsequently demanded 48% of ₦1.3 billion supposedly allocated to the agency in the 2026 budget. Gbajabiamila has denied the claims and filed a ₦10 billion defamation suit, giving Adeyemi 72 hours to retract or face civil and criminal consequences. The Senate has declined to involve itself, noting that the dispute belongs within the executive branch and that the matter is already before the courts.
While federal investigators pursue Adeyemi, police visited his parents' home in Ogbomoso on two occasions, briefly confiscating their phones and, according to human rights lawyer Femi Falana, detaining his father. The action drew swift condemnation from former presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, who called it an unlawful substituted arrest, and from the Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum, which accused the government of pursuing peripheral targets while protecting Gbajabiamila.
Former SGF Babachir Lawal has raised the most structurally troubling question: how did a non-existent agency obtain a government budget code and survive the federal budgeting process, which requires every agency to defend its allocation before the Budget Office of the Federation? His answer implies that the fraud could not have succeeded without insider collaboration — a conclusion the ICPC investigation will now be pressed to confirm or refute. Tinubu has ordered full cooperation from all ministries and agencies, and has made clear that prosecution will follow for anyone found culpable.
President Bola Tinubu has ordered the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to investigate what amounts to an elaborate fiction—a government agency that never existed, operated by a man claiming false presidential authority, complete with forged documents and bank accounts opened in its name. The Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, as the phantom body styled itself, appears to have been constructed with enough institutional veneer to fool people into treating it as real. Tinubu has given the anti-graft agency thirty days to unravel how this happened, who helped it happen, and what loopholes in government procedure allowed it to happen at all.
The central figure is Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, who presented himself as the council's director-general and used that false identity to seek diplomatic recognition, visa facilitation, and the opening of multiple bank accounts. According to the presidential statement, he wielded forged appointment letters and official government documents as his tools. But the scheme appears to have reached higher than one man's ambition. Adeyemi has alleged that Femi Gbajabiamila, the President's Chief of Staff, collected four hundred million naira from him to facilitate the appointment, then demanded forty-eight percent of the one point three billion naira the agency supposedly received in the 2026 budget. Gbajabiamila has responded with a ten billion naira defamation suit, giving Adeyemi seventy-two hours to retract his claims or face both civil and criminal action.
The investigation Tinubu has ordered is sweeping in scope. The ICPC is to examine the origin and use of forged documents, how official recognition or diplomatic support may have been obtained, the opening and operation of bank accounts, the movement of funds, and the role of any public official, financial institution, intermediary, or private person who may have facilitated the scheme. The President has also instructed all government ministries, departments, and agencies to provide the commission with whatever records and assistance it requests. He has made clear that anyone found culpable will be prosecuted.
Meanwhile, the Senate has stepped back from the controversy entirely. The chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs stated that the chamber has received no petition on the matter and that the allegations and counter-allegations are disputes within the executive branch that should be resolved there. He noted that the Senate does not conduct background checks on presidential appointees unless they require confirmation, and that the matter has already become the subject of litigation, making further legislative comment inappropriate. The message was clear: this is not the Senate's fight.
The police, however, have launched a manhunt for Adeyemi himself. Officers visited his parents' home in Ogbomoso on two separate occasions, briefly confiscating their phones. According to police sources, Adeyemi's parents told officers he had spent Monday and Tuesday in his hometown before leaving for Abuja on Wednesday—a few hours before the officers arrived. The Oyo State Police Command clarified that it is not handling the investigation; the matter has been taken up by the Force Criminal Investigation Department at the federal level in Abuja, as a case of national interest.
The arrest of Adeyemi's father has drawn sharp criticism. Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress for the 2027 election, condemned the detention as an abuse of power. He questioned the legal basis for what he called substituted arrest—holding a man accountable for his son's alleged crimes. Human rights lawyer Femi Falana had alleged that police operatives arrested the father, and Atiku demanded his immediate release. The Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum, a South-West socio-cultural group, also faulted the police action, describing it as part of a pattern in which the government appeared to be shielding Gbajabiamila from accountability while pursuing others aggressively.
Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir David Lawal has offered a different angle of criticism, faulting the current SGF's office for failing to detect the fake agency before its documents reached the President. He explained that the SGF's office serves as the clearing house for all federal government agencies and should verify the legal status of any institution seeking official recognition. The fact that the PFIPC obtained a government budget code and passed through the federal budgeting process suggests, in his view, that serious institutional failures occurred—or that more people than one man were involved in facilitating the scheme. Every ministry, department, and agency must defend its budget before the Budget Office of the Federation, he noted, making it unlikely that a non-existent organization could obtain budgetary recognition without insider collaboration.
The investigation will now determine whether that collaboration existed, how deep it ran, and what institutional reforms are needed to prevent such a scheme from succeeding again. For now, the President has set the terms: thirty days, full cooperation from all government agencies, and accountability for anyone found to have participated in the fraud.
Notable Quotes
If an agency is received, processed and forwarded without somebody in the SGF's office asking exactly who these people are, then there is a dereliction of duty.— Babachir David Lawal, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation
It is an overreach, an abuse of power. Why did they allow Prince Adeyemi to sneak away and are now flexing their powers by arresting the father in his stead?— Atiku Abubakar, African Democratic Congress presidential candidate
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
How does a fake government agency get far enough to secure a budget code and open bank accounts?
That's the question that troubles Babachir Lawal, the former SGF. He's saying it shouldn't be possible—that the SGF's office is supposed to verify the legal status of any organization claiming federal recognition before documents even reach the President. If this one made it through, either someone wasn't doing their job, or someone was actively helping it along.
And the Chief of Staff is accused of taking money for the appointment?
Four hundred million naira, according to Adeyemi. And then allegedly demanding forty-eight percent of the budget. Gbajabiamila denies it entirely and is suing for ten billion in defamation. But the fact that he's suing rather than stepping aside to face the investigation is what's angering people like the Yoruba Ronu forum.
Why did police arrest the father instead of the son?
That's the real scandal in some people's eyes. Adeyemi left for Abuja just hours before officers arrived at his parents' home in Ogbomoso. So they questioned the parents, briefly took their phones. Atiku called it substituted arrest—holding someone accountable for their relative's alleged crime. There's no legal basis for it in Nigerian law.
What does the Senate think about all this?
They want no part of it. They said they've received no petition, that it's an executive matter, and that since it's already in litigation, they shouldn't comment. They're being very careful to stay out.
So who's actually investigating now?
The ICPC has thirty days. The federal police are looking for Adeyemi. And there are apparently ongoing investigations by the EFCC and DSS as well. It's a multi-front thing.
What happens if the ICPC finds that multiple officials were involved?
Then the President has said they'll all be prosecuted. But the real question is whether the investigation will actually go where the evidence leads, or whether it will protect people higher up. That's what people are watching for.