The Senate is expected to confront the growing controversy surrounding the N1.3 billion allocation to the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) when plenary resumes on Tuesday, amid fresh revelations that the agency allegedly operated for over a year using a forged appointment letter.
According to multiple Presidency and civil service sources, the scandal was made possible after an alleged forged appointment letter bearing the falsified signature of the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, was accepted by officials at the Civil Service Headquarters without proper verification.
The document reportedly enabled Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Mathew to secure office space at the Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja, giving the controversial council the appearance of a legitimate government agency.
According to The Punch, sources familiar with the matter revealed that bureaucratic failures across the Civil Service Headquarters, the Budget Office and the National Assembly allowed the alleged fraud to thrive, eventually resulting in the inclusion of N1.3 billion for the council in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
A National Assembly source disclosed that Senate leadership is expected to address the controversy on Tuesday amid mounting public scrutiny over how the allocation was approved.
According to the source, the council’s budget was never subjected to the normal legislative scrutiny.
“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.
The source further revealed that neither Adeyemi nor any official of the council appeared before the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service to defend the proposed budget.
Presidency sources said the controversy originated from what they described as a forged appointment letter that bypassed established government procedures.
One senior Presidency official explained that appointments into agencies under the Presidency are constitutionally made by the President and formalised through the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), not by the Chief of Staff.
“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 where you can’t readily blame all of them is what we call the grundnorm. There is a foundation. The appointment letter was fake. It was invalid.
“In government, it is the President, not the Chief of Staff, who appoints. The appointment letter is then issued by the SGF.”
The official added, “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 it.
“The SGF then issues you a letter of appointment. For those in ministries, the process goes through the minister and Permanent Secretary before the appointee receives the letter. The Chief of Staff has never appointed anyone at that level.”
A senior civil servant who reviewed the documents after Adeyemi’s arrest said the suspect exploited a major administrative loophole.
“Where Adeniyi scammed everyone was that he forged a letter with the signature of the Chief of Staff. It wasn’t even Gbajabiamila’s signature because it was forged.
“He took the fake letter to the Civil Service Headquarters and requested office accommodation. He also prepared terms of reference stating he needed office space.
“Officials were supposed to know that the Chief of Staff doesn’t appoint anyone. That was the loophole.”
The source explained that once office accommodation was granted inside the Federal Secretariat, the agency immediately gained credibility.
“Once you have an office there, it confers a very high level of legitimacy. You can receive dignitaries there. He had a letterhead and even a website.
“Nobody questioned it anymore until someone eventually raised the alarm.”
The official disclosed that although the office was later sealed after Adeyemi’s initial arrest and reassigned, the suspect allegedly continued operating elsewhere.
“The man was still running the scam after he left the secretariat, but he doesn’t use that place anymore.”
Another Presidency source said the alleged fraud first came to light after officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) noticed that the council was performing functions already assigned to the commission.
“The issue first came up from the NIPC in October last year. Initially, it looked like an inter-agency rivalry because the fake agency was overlapping with NIPC’s statutory functions.
“The matter was taken to the Chief of Staff, who immediately denied knowing the individual and alerted the DSS.”
The source added, “At one of the meetings, the Chief of Staff swore he had never met the man and his conscience was clear. He pursued the matter until Adeniyi was arraigned and granted bail.”
The insider, however, lamented that the prosecution slowed after the arraignment.
“When nobody follows a case bumper to bumper, investigations can become slow. I thought the matter had already been concluded until it resurfaced.”
A third Presidency source suggested that the council may have secured the controversial allocation through contacts within the National Assembly.
“The turnover of lawmakers is high. Many who knew the background were no longer there.
“He probably knew someone in the National Assembly and asked that something be allocated to the council. Because it already had an office, a letterhead and other official trappings, it appeared legitimate.
“People have been asking how he found his way into the budget. It all stemmed from the fake appointment letter.”
The source also claimed Adeyemi violated the conditions attached to his bail.
“The police are supposed to arrest him again. He breached his bail conditions. There is already a comprehensive police file on him.”
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has formally requested Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker Tajudeen Abbas to release all documents relating to the controversial allocation.
In a Freedom of Information request dated July 4, 2026, and signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP requested certified copies of documents showing how the N1,302,978,784 allocation was approved.
The organisation also demanded records identifying lawmakers who considered the budget, officials who defended it, and clarification on whether the allocation originated from the Executive or was inserted 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.”
SERAP warned it would institute legal action if the information is not released within seven days.
Similarly, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) demanded a public inquiry into the controversy.
Its chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, said, “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.”
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, through his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, described the controversy as evidence of systemic 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.
“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.”
The Tanimu Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described the controversy as evidence of weak governance.
The faction stated, “If the Presidency’s account is correct that Prince Matthew is an impostor, then the Federal Government is so porous that the country has been brazenly defrauded because institutional gatekeepers entrusted with protecting public resources failed in their responsibilities.”
The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) called on Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila to voluntarily step aside pending an independent investigation.
In a statement jointly signed by National President Yinka Folarin and National Secretary Idris Afees, the group said, “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 Kwankwasiyya Movement, through its spokesperson Dr Habibu Sale Mohammed, also demanded accountability.
“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?”
Responding to the controversy, the Deputy Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, urged 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.”
