PFIPC scandal: Presidency tells DSS, EFCC to unmask internal collaborators

The Presidency has directed the DSS and EFCC to expose and prosecute internal collaborators who allegedly enabled Prince Matthew Adeniyi to operate a fictitious presidential agency.

Presidency Alleges Internal Collaborators Helped Adeniyi Run Fictitious Agency

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Temitope Ajayi, in a post on his X handle, described Adeniyi as an “irredeemable con artist” exploiting public sentiment around corruption to shield himself from accountability by dragging Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila into his scheme, Vanguard reports.

Ajayi said investigators had been tasked with establishing how Adeniyi managed to forge presidential appointment letters, maintain 34 bank accounts in fictitious government names, host foreign ambassadors and open a Central Bank of Nigeria account while parading himself as Director-General of the non-existent Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council.

“The criminal network within the affected institutions must be dismantled and everyone found to have played a role should be arrested and prosecuted,” Ajayi said.

He credited the system for detecting the fraud, noting that officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs first identified the anomaly and alerted appropriate authorities.

OnHuman rights lawyer Femi Falana, SAN, however, challenged the Presidency, saying it lacked constitutional authority to exonerate anyone and calling on the ICPC to independently investigate both Gbajabiamila and Adeniyi, including how ₦24bn was allegedly budgeted for the non-existent agency. Adeniyi is due in court on July 27.