Senate to review N1.3bn Fake Agency budget scandal on Tuesday

Nigeria’s Senate will on Tuesday, address the controversy surrounding the N1.3 billion allocation to the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) when plenary resumes.

Investigations revealed that a forged appointment letter bearing the fake signature of the President’s Chief of Staff allegedly enabled Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Mathew to operate the agency from the Federal Secretariat in Abuja for over a year, giving it the appearance of legitimacy.
Sources in the Presidency and the civil service said the forged document passed through several government institutions without proper verification, exposing major lapses in the Budget Office, the House of Representatives and the Civil Service Headquarters.

The sources explained that under normal government procedures, appointments to agencies under the Presidency are made by the President through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, not by the Chief of Staff. They described the appointment letter used by Adeyemi as entirely fraudulent.
According to officials, Adeyemi secured office space at the Federal Secretariat after presenting the forged document, allowing him to establish an office, produce official letterheads and launch a website, all of which strengthened the false impression that the council was a legitimate government agency.
The controversy deepened after reports emerged that the agency received a N1.3 billion allocation in the 2026 Appropriation Act despite allegedly failing to appear before the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service to defend its budget.

A National Assembly source claimed the allocation was inserted through a “backdoor arrangement” alongside other Presidency-related budget items without detailed scrutiny.
Presidency officials said the alleged fraud was first uncovered after the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission complained that the council was performing functions already assigned to the commission. The matter was reportedly referred to the Chief of Staff, who denied any knowledge of Adeyemi and alerted the Department of State Services, leading to the suspect’s arrest.
Although the office allocated to the council has since been sealed and reassigned, officials alleged that Adeyemi continued operating elsewhere.
Civil society organisations, opposition parties and public interest groups have demanded full investigations into how the agency secured budgetary allocation.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project requested certified documents relating to the approval of the allocation and warned it would initiate legal action if the National Assembly failed to provide the requested information within seven days.
The Human and Environmental Development Agenda also called for a public inquiry into the budget process, while former Vice President Atiku Abubakar described the controversy as evidence of systemic governance failures and urged President Bola Tinubu to order an independent investigation.
The Kwankwasiyya Movement and a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party questioned how an agency the Presidency says does not exist found its way into the national budget.

The House of Representatives urged Nigerians to allow the courts to determine the matter.
Senior lawyers also called for a wider investigation into all individuals who may have facilitated the alleged fraud, arguing that the scandal could not have involved only one person.
Adeyemi is expected to appear before the Federal High Court in Abuja on July 27 alongside two accomplices identified only as Femi and Anu, who remain at large.