The Senate is set to deliberate on the controversy surrounding the N1.3bn allocation to the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council in the 2026 Appropriation Act when plenary resumes on Tuesday.
Findings indicate that a forged appointment letter bearing a falsified signature of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, was accepted by officials at the Civil Service Headquarters without proper verification, according to The PUNCH.
The development allegedly enabled Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Mathew to secure office space at the Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja, giving the controversial council the appearance of an official government agency for more than a year.
Multiple Presidency and civil service sources familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the ongoing investigations, said the scandal could have been prevented if established bureaucratic safeguards had not failed across the Budget Office, the House of Representatives and the Civil Service Headquarters.
According to the sources, the failure to thoroughly verify the appointment letter allowed the controversial council to engage diplomatic missions, government ministries, the National Assembly and private individuals under the guise of legitimacy.
It was further gathered that the N1.3bn allocation was approved despite neither Adeyemi nor any official representing the council appearing before the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service to defend the proposed budget.
A National Assembly source disclosed on Sunday that the appropriation was inserted through what was described as a backdoor arrangement.
“It was not brought in as a stand-alone item. It was done collectively with others that came in directly from the Presidency. So there was no defence or oversight.
“But I understand the Senate leadership will address the controversy on Tuesday to douse the growing tension and alleged complicity by any of its presiding officers,” the official said.
Officials in both the Presidency and the civil service also gave a detailed account of how the alleged fraud bypassed several administrative safeguards through the forged appointment letter.
“The mistake came from several areas, the House of Representatives, the Head of Service, the Budget Office. Most of them did not do due diligence. But you see where you can’t readily blame all of them is what we call grundnorm. There is a foundation. The appointment letter was fake. It was invalid.
“In government, the way it runs is that it is the President, not the Chief of Staff, who appoints. The letter of appointment is then issued by the SGF,” a Presidency source told one of our correspondents.
Explaining the constitutional procedure allegedly violated by Adeyemi, the source said appointments under the Presidency follow a clearly defined process.
“Everyone who has ever been appointed by this President passed through a specific process. If your parastatal is directly under the Presidency, the SGF makes a memo to the President and the President approves the memo.
“The SGF then issues you a letter of appointment. For those in ministries, he minutes it to the relevant minister, who minutes it to the Permanent Secretary, who then gives it to the appointee. With that letter, you can enter the government payroll.
“The Chief of Staff has never appointed anyone at that level. All DGs and Permanent Secretaries, their appointments are from the President.”
A senior civil servant who said he reviewed the document after Adeyemi’s arrest explained how the alleged scheme succeeded.
“Where Adeniyi scammed everyone was that he forged a letter with the signature of the Chief of Staff, which was not even his signature because it was forged. It was not Gbajabiamila’s signature. The Chief of Staff cannot make such an appointment.
“Adeniyi took that fake letter, falsely signed by Gbajabiamila, to the civil service headquarters and said ‘please refer to my appointment letter attached.’ He arranged his terms of reference where he stated that he needed an office.
“The problem is, the President’s letter to the SGF or minister is not usually attached to such documentation, you are just expected to attach the appointment letter. But they were supposed to know that the Chief of Staff doesn’t appoint anyone. That was the loophole,” the official revealed.
The source added that once office space was allocated to Adeyemi at the Federal Secretariat, the operation acquired an air of authenticity that made subsequent activities easier to sustain.
“Once you have an office there, it confers a very high level of legitimacy on you. You can meet big guests there. He had a letterhead and even a website. Once he established that office at the Federal Secretariat, every other thing followed. Nobody tried to do the needful anymore until someone raised the alarm,” said the official.
The official confirmed that following Adeyemi’s initial arrest, the office was sealed and later reassigned to another official, although the alleged operation continued outside the secretariat.
“The man was still running the scam after he left the secretariat, but he doesn’t use that place anymore,” the source said.
Another Presidency source said officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission first detected the alleged fraud after noticing that the council was encroaching on the commission’s statutory responsibilities.
“The issue first came up from the NIPC in October last year. It started like inter-agency rivalry. That was how they saw it at the time because this fake agency was now overlapping into the mandate of the NIPC. The following day, it was taken to the Chief of Staff, who said he doesn’t know the person, and then he was the one who alerted the DSS.
“At one of the meetings about this issue, the Chief of Staff swore that he has never met the man and doesn’t even know him. And that his conscience is clear. The Chief of Staff didn’t take it lightly. He followed up until Adeniyi was arraigned in court and put on bail,” the insider said.
The source, however, said the prosecution slowed after the initial arrest.
“You know, when no one follows the case bumper to bumper, it can become very slow at the police. It was since October last year and when it resurfaced in June, I was surprised, because I believed it had been dealt with.
The official further revealed that several civil servants had independently identified the operation as fraudulent.
“Many civil servants already flagged it as a scam and it was their report that was used to alert the authorities. Some even thought that the case would unravel itself.”
A third Presidency source explained how the council may have secured budgetary allocation despite not presenting a formal defence before lawmakers.
“The National Assembly, the turnover of members is quite high. Many of the people who are knowledgeable about some of these things may be gone. So a new person responsible for that committee on treaties may not really know what is happening. No one is blaming all the people there. But there needed to be due diligence which wasn’t done.
“He probably knows someone in the National Assembly and told them ‘please allocate something to us too.’ So it appeared like a government organisation that had a letterhead, an office and other things.
“All of these things, especially the fake appointment letter, conferred legitimacy on him. The whole problem stemmed from that oversight. People have been asking how he found his way into the budget.”
The source also alleged that Adeyemi had breached the conditions attached to his bail.
“The police is supposed to pick him up again. He ran foul of his bail conditions. He was actually arraigned in court. There is a big document on him from the police,” said the official.
Meanwhile, the N1.3bn allocation has continued to generate reactions from civil society organisations and opposition groups, with some calling for the resignation of the President’s Chief of Staff.
SERAP, HEDA seek documents
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, in a Freedom of Information request dated July 4, 2026, and signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, urged Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker Tajudeen Abbas to release certified copies of all documents relating to the approval of the N1,302,978,784 allocation contained in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
SERAP also requested details of lawmakers who handled the appropriation, names of government officials who defended the budget before the committees and clarification on whether the allocation originated from the Executive or was introduced during legislative consideration.
“Nigerians have a right to know whether public funds were appropriated for an entity that was not lawfully established and, if so, how this occurred. Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law,” the organisation stated.
The organisation warned it would initiate legal action if the requested information was not released within seven days.
The Human and Environmental Development Agenda also demanded a public inquiry into the matter.
“If the Presidency maintains that the PFIPC does not exist, Nigerians deserve to know how an allocation for the council found its way into the 2026 Appropriation Act. The public has a right to know who proposed the allocation, the government institutions that processed and approved it, and whether any public funds have been released or committed,” HEDA Chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, said.
Atiku attacks Tinubu over controversy
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, described the controversy as evidence of a recurring pattern of governance failures.
“There is an old African saying that when a man’s roof leaks every rainy season, neighbours stop blaming the clouds and begin to question the strength of the house itself. Nigeria has sadly arrived at that point.
“The issue is no longer one scandal or another. The issue is the pattern. And when scandals become a pattern of governance, the inevitable conclusion is this: you are no longer managing scandals; you have become the scandal itself.”
He urged President Bola Tinubu to order an independent investigation into the matter.
“The countdown has already begun. Nigerians expect answers, not evasions. The presidency still has five days left to tell Nigerians who created this phantom organisation, who authorised its activities, and who must be held responsible. Silence cannot become the official response to a scandal of this magnitude,” he said.
PDP faction, CDHR call for investigation
The Tanimu Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party said the allegations exposed serious weaknesses in government institutions.
“If the Presidency’s account is correct that Prince Matthew is an impostor, then it means the Federal Government is so porous and vulnerable, an admission that the country has been brazenly defrauded because institutional gatekeepers entrusted with protecting our collective patrimony are either grossly incompetent or thoroughly distracted from the responsibilities of governance.”
The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights also urged Gbajabiamila to temporarily step aside while an independent investigation is conducted.
“The allegations on both sides are grave. While the Federal Government alleges forgery, impersonation, fraudulent operation of bank accounts and misrepresentation, the defendant has levelled equally weighty allegations of bribery and abuse of office against one of the country’s highest-ranking public officials. If either set of allegations is proven, it represents a serious assault on the integrity of public institutions,” the statement said.
Kwankwasiyya seeks explanation over budget
The Kwankwasiyya Movement said the controversy had raised broader concerns about accountability in public finance.
“This is no longer about one man. It has become a question of public accountability. If the council never existed, how did it find its way into the national budget? Who proposed and approved the allocation? Which government offices processed the documentation? Was any public money released or committed? If official documents were allegedly forged, how were they used for such a long period without detection?”
Deputy House of Representatives Spokesman Philip Agbese appealed for patience, urging Nigerians to allow the judicial process to run its course.
“The issue is being handled legally and I think we should all be patient. Nigerians will get to know in detail what transpired, and anything short of that at this material time will not help us.”
Lawyers dismiss calls to prosecute Gbajabiamila
Senior lawyers who spoke with The PUNCH rejected demands for Gbajabiamila to be prosecuted alongside Adeyemi, insisting that criminal liability must be based on evidence rather than public sentiment.
Bankole Akomolafe (SAN), founding partner of Bank-Akomolafe, SAN & Co, said:
“The issue of joining a person in a criminal matter, in the instant case, is not done on sentiments or emotions. Somebody is claiming that the Chief of Staff is aware of fraud.
“I do not believe that such an amount would have been transmitted by cash, that on its own would be a crime.
“So I want to assume that a transfer was made, electronic transfer. He should be able to publish the statement of account. It is not something that should be difficult to prove.”
He added:
“How are we sure that the allegation is not a vendetta to say ‘I will make sure I rubbish you?’ People can allege anything. Let us see something concrete before we come to that suggestion that the person should be charged. Mere allegations are not enough.”
Another senior lawyer, Sampson Erugo, argued that investigators should widen the probe to include everyone who may have facilitated the alleged scheme.
“I wonder why the hurry in the trial of one person in this scandal. For there to be a budget, there is an office for the agency, and so many issues, meaning that so many people are involved. They have an office at the National Secretariat, they have accounts with the CBN. Why should they rush to charge one man? A lot of people should answer for their roles in the scam.”
Adeyemi is expected to appear before the Federal High Court in Abuja on July 27, 2026, alongside two alleged accomplices identified only as Femi and Anu, who are currently at large.
