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Lawyers representing Adeniyi Adeyemi, the man accused of establishing the fake Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), have accused several federal institutions of validating and facilitating the council’s operations.
In a statement signed by his legal team on Sunday, the lawyers questioned why investigators had focused criminal proceedings on their client alone.
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“If the SGF, the Accountant-General, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Head of Service, the Budget Office, the EFCC, the National Assembly and the heads of Nigeria’s primary security architecture all verified, processed, funded and officially interacted with this agency over an extended period, how can a single citizen, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, be held uniquely responsible for failing to detect what the entire apparatus of the State validated?” the lawyers asked.
“It is an administrative impossibility for an unassisted individual to mislead every arm of the federal government simultaneously without official, high-level institutional sanction,” they added.
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They argued that justice could not be served by “prosecuting the mouthpiece while ignoring the state machinery that built, budgeted and bureaucratically birthed the entity.”
The controversy dates back to October 2025 when the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, petitioned the State Security Service (SSS) and the Nigeria Police Force over the alleged establishment and operation of the Presidential PFIPC, which the Federal Government said was never lawfully created.
Following the petition, the police filed an eight charges against Mr Adeyemi and two others, accusing them of forgery, impersonation and obtaining by false pretence.
The case suffered several adjournments before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Last month, following the prosecution’s oral application after Mr Adeyemi failed to appear for his arraignment, Judge Mohammed Umar ordered for his arrest.
His lawyer, Genesis Francis, opposed the application and told the court that his client feared for his life. The lawyer added that Mr Adeyemi had written an open letter to President Bola Tinubu and wanted to remain alive to face trial.
The judge noted that “the court will help him to be alive” before he issued a bench warrant for Mr Adeyemi’s arrest.
He was later arrested by the police less than 12 hours after the order and remains in police custody pending further proceedings scheduled for 30 September.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives opened a separate investigation into how the council obtained official recognition, office accommodation and budgetary allocations despite questions over its legal status.
At its latest hearing, the ad hoc committee chaired by Yusuf Gagdi directed the Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, to produce Mr Adeyemi before lawmakers, prompting Monday’s statement from his lawyers.
‘Verifiable administrative footprint tells a different story’
In the Sunday’s statement, Mr Adeyemi’s legal team argued that while the prosecution and ongoing public inquiries had portrayed Mr Adeyemi as an isolated impostor who single-handedly fabricated a federal agency, the “verifiable administrative footprint” of the PFIPC “tells an entirely different story.”
According to the statement, investigators should examine the institutional actions that created and validated the council rather than focus only on Mr Adeyemi.
They maintained that the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) “formally acknowledged documentation and facilitated official office allocations within the Federal Secretariat Complex.”
The lawyers further questioned how the federal government’s central administrative institution could have acted on the documents if they were forgeries.
They also alleged that the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) “acted on official documentation to issue administrative budget codes, grant self-accounting status, post federal civil service staff to the council and officially open operational accounts.”
According to the statement, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) “formally approved the establishment structure and granted recruitment waivers” that enabled the onboarding of 314 personnel.
The lawyers also alleged that the Budget Office of the Federation and the National Assembly “processed and vetted documentation” that led to the inclusion of a N1.302 billion allocation for PFIPC in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
They maintained that the allocation was passed by both chambers of the National Assembly and signed into law by the President.
The defence team also alleged that “heads of major security agencies attended programmes organised by the council”.
They further claimed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) “allocated a property to the council, requested N300 million as processing consideration and presented a plaque of recognition to its leadership.”
Background
The Federal Government has maintained that the PFIPC never existed as a lawful federal agency despite operating from the Federal Secretariat, maintaining official bank accounts and obtaining government approvals.
Police alleged that forged documents enabled the council to secure official recognition and that Mr Adeyemi presented himself as its director-general. He has denied the allegations.
A detailed PREMIUM TIMES review of the controversy in early July found that about 12 agencies have questions to answer in the case. According to the report, it is also likely that collaborators within the system colluded with or enabled Mr Adeyemi to commit the alleged fraud. However, police investigations failed to link any individual in government or the civil service to Mr Adeyemi or his alleged fraud.
The review identified several institutions whose actions required further scrutiny, including the Office of the SG, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, the CBN, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Budget Office.
It also examined the roles played by officials who approved or acted on documents submitted on behalf of the council and questioned how those approvals passed through multiple government institutions without the alleged irregularities coming to light.
Two days after the review, the House of Representatives, on 8 July, resolved to investigate how the purported PFIPC secured an N1.302 billion allocation in the 2026 Appropriation Act despite lacking legal backing.
Lawmakers also set up an ad hoc committee to trace how the allocation entered the budget and identify those responsible.
At its latest hearing on 27 July, the committee disclosed that it had uncovered 29 documents it believed were forged in connection with the council’s operations, thereby directing the IGP to produce Mr Adeyemi before lawmakers within 48 hours.
The committee noted that his testimony was necessary before it concluded its investigation.
The directive prompted the Sunday’s statement by Mr Adeyemi’s lawyers, who insisted that the controversy should not be treated as the actions of one individual alone, because focusing criminal proceedings on Mr Adeyemi without examining the role of the institutions that interacted with PFIPC would leave key questions unanswered.
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