Traced by DSS, caught by IRT: How Nigeria’s ‘most wanted ghost agency’ boss Adeyemi was finally apprehended in Osun village

Adeniyi Adeyemi, Director General of the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, has been arrested by police in a village in Ijesaland, Osun State, hours after a Federal High Court in Abuja issued a bench warrant for his arrest following his repeated failure to appear for trial on an eight-count charge of forgery, fraud and impersonation.

The hiding is over.

Adeniyi Adeyemi, the man at the centre of Nigeria’s most baffling government scandal, was arrested on Monday in a village in Ijesaland, Osun State, hours after Justice Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court in Abuja issued a bench warrant for his arrest — ending weeks of hiding that had kept investigators and the courts waiting.

Vanguard reports that the arrest was executed by a team from the Federal Investigation Department/IRT of the Force Headquarters, led by Moses Lohor, after the Department of State Services had trailed Adeyemi for five days before the police special unit took over the operation. Osun State Police Command spokesperson Abiodun Ojelabi confirmed the arrest and said Adeyemi was already being transported to Abuja.

The warrant was issued after police lawyer Wisdom Madaki told the court that the defendant had failed to appear for the fifth consecutive time. “My lord, this is the fifth time this case is coming up, and all the adjournments have been at the instance of the defendant,” Madaki told the court.

Adeyemi’s defence lawyer, Genesis Francis, opposed the warrant application, arguing his client feared for his life. “The defendant is afraid for his life. He has to be alive to be able to face trial. They have been looking for him, even without an order of court,” Francis said.

Justice Umar was unmoved. The court noted that despite the charge being filed on November 27, 2025 — with proceedings beginning December 4 — Adeyemi had appeared before the court only once since then.

Adeyemi faces an eight-count charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/562/2025, covering allegations of forgery, fraud and impersonation related to his operation of the PFIPC — an agency the Presidency insists never legally existed despite its appearance in Nigeria’s 2026 budget with a N1.3 billion allocation and a functioning office inside the Federal Secretariat.