A trail of correspondence between top government agencies and the disowned Director-General of the non-existent Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), Adeniyi Adeyemi, has revealed how he penetrated the highest level of the Nigerian government to execute what now appears to be illegal activities.
The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) acted on letters received from Mr Adeyemi’s PFIPC, believing them to have originated from a legitimate agency under the Nigerian presidency.
In some letters reviewed by this newspaper, Mr Adeyemi “forged” the State House letterhead to address other government agencies, but signed them in his name as the DG of PFIPC.
The presidency alleged that Mr Adeyemi concocted all of those letters and the claims therein, and has charged him in court. In the eight-count charge, Mr Adeyemi faces a maximum prison sentence of 21 years without the option of a fine on each charge, and up to three years’ imprisonment or a fine on one additional charge.
But despite evidence that he operated a fake agency and made false claims, Mr Adeyemi has insisted he did nothing wrong. Instead, he is accusing the government of simply trying to shut him up and vowing to prove his innocence in court.
He also accused Femi Gbajabiamila, the chief of staff to President Bola Tinubu, of falsehood and corruption. But Mr Gbajabiamila was the first official to disown Mr Adeyemi and his organisation publicly. It was also the chief of staff who requested the Police and the State Security Service to investigate Mr Adeyemi for criminal activities.
Believing that the letters from Mr Adeyemi were from a genuine government official, the OSGF and OAGF processed a request for an office space for his non-existent agency at the Federal Secretariat and directed the CBN to open two domiciliary accounts for the organisation.
The OAGF also granted the organisation self-accounting status and assigned it a budget code, ensuring it received a budgetary allocation. A self-accounting status grants an MDA full control over its accounting records and enables it to prepare and submit transcripts directly to the Treasury.
