Official documents have cast fresh doubt on the Presidency’s insistence that the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) never existed.
The documents reveal that the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation received, acknowledged and acted on correspondence submitted in the council’s name months before the Presidency publicly disowned it.
Specifically, the SGF’s office formally processed and forwarded a request by the council’s self-styled Director-General, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, seeking office accommodation from recovered Federal Government properties through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The correspondence, dated November 21, 2024, was signed by the Permanent Secretary, General Services Office, Nnamdi Maurice Mbaeri, on behalf of the SGF.
Attached to it was Adeyemi’s November 7, 2024, request for office accommodation for the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council.
Registry stamps show the letter was received by the SGF’s office on November 12 before it was forwarded to the anti-graft agency nine days later.
The forwarding letter, titled “Request for Office Accommodation,” informed the EFCC that three government institutions had applied for office accommodation from recovered Federal Government properties.
The letter specifically identified one of the requests as Ref. No. SH/DG/PFIPC/RQ/107, dated November 7, 2024, submitted by the Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council.
It stated, “I am directed to forward the attached copies of letters requesting allocation of office accommodation from the recovered Federal Government landed properties for further necessary action.”
In his accompanying letter to the SGF, Adeyemi presented the PFIPC as a Federal Government investment promotion agency responsible for attracting foreign direct investment into Nigeria.
He claimed that the council “also serves as the resource and coordinating centre for the Nation’s Foreign Investment Promotion activities – a One-Stop-Shop for Investments centre coordinating investment-related activities across ministries, departments and agencies and promoting Nigeria as a preferred investment destination.”
According to the letter, the council “facilitates the interaction between public and private sectors, and has an active role in policy advocacy and promotes a positive image of Nigeria as a country that is attractive to foreign investors.”
The letter added that the council “liaises with all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government to develop, compile and collate data and information, serving as the repository of information on investment opportunities in Nigeria.”
It further stated that “as a one-stop investment centre, it coordinates all actions to ensure that investors, both potential and existing, receive the best possible support from the MDAs.”
Describing its mandate, the letter stated, “The vision of the PFIPC is that Nigeria shall become world’s preferred investment destination while its mission is to identify, promote and facilitate the exploitation of opportunities for private sector investments that will create jobs for, and promote prosperity and the well-being of the People of Nigeria.”
Adeyemi wrote, “The Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) attracts and maximises the flow of foreign direct investments into Nigeria, and encourages existing foreign investors to further expand and develop their businesses.”
The documents have surfaced amid the criminal prosecution of Adeyemi, who is accused of operating a fictitious government agency, forging a presidential appointment letter purportedly signed by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and falsely presenting himself as Director-General of the PFIPC.
It was also alleged that he operated 34 bank accounts, including some opened in the names of purported government agencies, and conducted official engagements, including a meeting with diplomats at the Wells Carlton Hotel in Abuja, under the banner of the council.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, maintained that the PFIPC was fictitious.
According to the statement titled, “Re: The Matter of Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew and the Fictitious Presidential Economic Advisory Council,” the Presidency outlined the criminal case against Adeyemi, including the police investigation report, the charges filed against him and what it described as his long history of fraudulent conduct.
FG lists Gbajabiamila, 10 others as witnesses
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has listed the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and 10 others as witnesses in the criminal case against Adeyemi.
A copy of the charge sheet, filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja, was obtained by our correspondent.
Adeyemi and two others, identified as Femi and Anu, who are said to be at large, are facing charges of conspiracy, forgery, impersonation and related offences.
According to the eight-count charge, the suspects allegedly operated a fictitious government agency and forged official presidential documents to give it legitimacy.
The alleged offences were committed between 2024 and 2025.
Among those listed as witnesses are three officials of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
Count Two of the charge reads: “That you, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Mathew… forged an appointment letter purportedly issued by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR… and signed by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila.”
In Count Five, the prosecution alleged that Adeyemi falsely presented himself as the Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council.
The charges, brought under the Miscellaneous Offences Act and the Penal Code, accuse the defendants of creating a fictitious Federal Government agency and using forged documents bearing presidential insignia, reference numbers and official seals.
An interim report by the Inspector-General of Police Monitoring Unit, filed as part of the court processes, stated that the investigation was triggered by a petition from the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President.
According to the report, “The attention of the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President was drawn to the activities of some individuals and groups who were fraudulently forging official appointment letters purportedly issued from the said office.”
Police alleged that the forged documents carried falsified signatures, reference numbers and official seals, which were used to create leadership positions in what investigators described as a non-existent agency.
“The forged documents had falsified signatures, reference/folio numbers and seals, and were used to claim leadership appointments into non-existing entities, particularly one known as the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC),” the report stated.
Investigators further alleged that Adeyemi presented himself as the head of the agency and held meetings with both Nigerians and foreign nationals in that capacity.
The report also claimed that Adeyemi wrote to several government institutions, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting diplomatic assistance for visa facilitation.
“The suspect went as far as writing to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, soliciting a Note Verbale to the Embassy of the United States of America to facilitate the issuance of entry visas for some of his purported staff members,” the report added.
Police said Adeyemi was arrested on October 27, 2025, following surveillance and intelligence gathering, after which search warrants were executed at his office and residence in Suleja, Niger State.
Investigators said they recovered several exhibits, including alleged forged appointment letters, official letterheads, correspondence addressed to Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and documents bearing presidential insignia.
The police further alleged that Adeyemi told investigators that one Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola assisted him in procuring the appointment letter. However, the report stated that Tanimola was later confirmed to have died in a fire incident in Abuja.
Presidency demands Adeyemi, collaborators’ prosecution
The Presidency on Friday vowed that internal collaborators within government institutions who allegedly enabled Adeyemi to operate his fictitious presidential agency for months without detection would be identified and prosecuted.
It also urged security agencies to dismantle what it described as a criminal network within affected government institutions.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, disclosed this in a post on his X handle, saying investigators from the Department of State Services, the Nigeria Police Force and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had been tasked with uncovering the full extent of the alleged collaboration.
“What is not in doubt is that internal collaborators enabled Adeniyi to get this far. That is precisely what investigators from the DSS, the Police and the EFCC must now unravel.
“The criminal network within the affected institutions must be dismantled, and everyone found to have played a role should be arrested and prosecuted,” Ajayi wrote.
He alleged that Adeyemi was attempting to exploit public anger over corruption to evade criminal accountability by dragging Gbajabiamila into the controversy.
“In Nigeria, the easiest and most believable allegation anyone can throw at a public officer is corruption.
“Once that accusation is thrown into the mix, the water is polluted, the lines are blurred, and everyone is kept busy arguing over distractions rather than the real issues,” he said.
Ajayi described Adeyemi as “an irredeemable con artist” attempting to use Gbajabiamila’s name as “his last straw.”
“Matthew Adeniyi understands Nigerian public psychology and is exploiting it expertly to shield himself. He is an irredeemable con artist who is attempting to drag the name of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, into his criminal enterprise. The Chief of Staff is simply his last straw,” he added.
The presidential aide acknowledged that systemic weaknesses had allowed the alleged fraud to flourish but argued that the same system ultimately exposed it.
“Many commentators have rightly pointed to the systemic failure that allowed such an elaborate fraudulent scheme to flourish. Daredevil criminals who operate around government institutions with the sole aim of pulling off spectacular heists are common across the world. Some succeed, many fail.”
“The part many commentators have overlooked, however, is how that same system eventually detected the fraud and fished him out.
“Contrary to the anything-goes narrative being promoted, it was the system itself that raised the red flag and dealt with it administratively,” Ajayi said.
He explained that officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission and the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs became suspicious after Adeyemi’s purported council allegedly began performing functions similar to those of the investment commission and hosting meetings with foreign diplomats without notifying the ministry.
According to him, both institutions subsequently lodged formal complaints with the appropriate authorities.
“That is a system functioning as it should. It is a system capable of detecting an aberration,” he added.
Friday’s statement is the Presidency’s third official response to the controversy.
The PUNCH