The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the unestablished Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) has directed the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Olatunji Disu, to produce the alleged fake Director-General of the council, Mr Adeniyi Adeyemi, before it on Wednesday by 12 noon.
The directive followed the appearance of the Inspector-General of Police before the committee through ACP Bashir Abdullahi, who confirmed that Adeyemi is currently in police custody and facing criminal charges.
ACP Abdullahi told lawmakers that investigations had uncovered discrepancies in the signatures of the Chief of Staff to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, on documents submitted as evidence.
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He explained that while investigations were ongoing, the Nigeria Police Force had already filed an eight-count charge against the suspect before the Federal High Court.
“The Nigerian Police Force investigated part of this case late last year and filed eight-count charges before a Federal High Court. The case is ongoing,” he said.
The police representative noted that the suspect had been arrested and arraigned, adding that further disclosures could prejudice ongoing investigations and judicial proceedings.
“We don’t want to say things that are under investigation. It is definitely going to prejudice the ongoing investigation and make people have opinions that may prejudge the outcome of an investigation or judicial decision,” he stated.
The police also confirmed that on October 17, 2025, the Chief of Staff to the President petitioned security agencies over allegations against Adeyemi, leading to investigations that culminated in criminal charges bordering on conspiracy and fraud.
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According to the police, another petition alleged that Adeyemi falsely presented himself as the Director-General of both the Presidential Economic Advisory Council and the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council.
The petition further alleged that he used the purported office to secure accommodation at the Federal Secretariat, sought approval to recruit about 300 staff, attempted to insert about $1.3 billion into the 2026 Appropriation Act for the non-existent agency and planned a World Investment Summit under the platform of the council.
Chairman of the committee, Mr Yusuf Gagdi, said Adeyemi’s appearance had become necessary because of the seriousness of the allegations and their implications for individuals and public institutions.
“This committee clearly needs the suspected DG to appear before this committee. People’s names are involved. People’s integrity is involved. Institutional names are involved. Institutional integrity is involved
“It is not an option now. We will need him here to confirm some documents to us in such a way that will not undermine our investigation to enable us to submit our report on time.” Gagdi said.
The committee subsequently directed its clerk to formally communicate the resolution to the Inspector-General of Police.
Gagdi also disclosed that investigators had identified about 29 allegedly forged documents, including purported approvals from the State House, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Ministry of Finance and other government institutions.
According to him, several affected agencies had already appeared before the committee and disowned the documents attributed to them.
“So, it is not only a letter that was suspected to be forged, we are dealing with documents that include what is said to be a forged Act of the National Assembly in an attempt to establish a fake agency,” he said.
Gagdi stressed that the committee had deliberately avoided compelling the police to disclose information that could undermine ongoing investigations.
“We are avoiding a situation whereby they will be pushed to make statements that will undermine their ongoing investigation,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Shamseldeen Babatunde Ogunjimi, told the committee that his office had interactions with the purported council before discovering that it was not a legitimate government agency.
Presenting his report, Ogunjimi said the Office of the Accountant-General first received correspondence in November 2024 requesting the creation of an administrative code for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council for budgeting, accounting and reporting purposes.
He explained that the request appeared to originate from the State House and was processed in line with established procedures, with the approval subsequently communicated to the State House and copied to the Office of the Auditor-General.
The Accountant-General said the office later received requests relating to self-accounting status, staff deployment, Treasury Single Account (TSA) and domiciliary accounts, as well as funding approvals.
However, he emphasised that no government funds were released to the council.
“It is important to note that no funds were released under salaries, overhead, capital, or any form of intervention or special allocation to the council,” Ogunjimi said.
He revealed that the council had requested an establishment grant of ₦27.4 billion, but the request was never approved because there was no budgetary provision for it.
Ogunjimi further disclosed that although two domiciliary accounts were opened by the Central Bank of Nigeria for inflow purposes, they never became operational because the council failed to meet regulatory requirements.
In a significant revelation, he informed lawmakers that the original correspondence requesting the administrative code was later discovered not to have originated from the State House.
“The letter that was received by the Treasury was respectfully addressed as coming from the State House
“That letter was never issued by the State House,” he said.
The disclosure prompted committee members to describe the correspondence as a “hijacked” State House letter allegedly used to mislead government institutions into processing requests for a non-existent agency.
Ogunjimi also explained that two officers originally deployed to the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President in 2010 and 2013 remained there after the office was allegedly taken over by the purported council, without any formal notification to the Treasury.
“It was never assumed or written to us that those two officers were being taken over
“The staff also never reported to the office to say that another council had taken over the office and the name had changed,” he said.
He added that when the purported council later requested five additional staff, only three were approved because officials considered the organisation too small to justify the number requested.
“It was when all this matter came to light that I got to know that two of our staff were actually working or being absorbed by the agency. We never knew. We believed, based on the records available to us, that those officers were still with the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser,” Ogunjimi stated.
The hearing forms part of the House investigation into allegations that forged presidential approvals, State House documents and other government records were used to establish and operate the purported Presidential Economic Advisory Council and the unestablished Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council.
