The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has recommended administrative action against 13 public officials over their alleged roles in the scandal involving the purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), an organisation investigators say had no legal basis.
The recommendation is contained in an interim ICPC investigation report submitted to President Bola Tinubu on August 6. The report found that the PFIPC was not created by any law, executive order or other valid government instrument, while its self-styled Director-General, Adeniyi Adeyemi, was never appointed by the federal government.
The commission has recommended that Adeyemi be prosecuted for alleged forgery, impersonation, making false statements to public officers and criminal misrepresentation. Police have already charged him and two others with eight counts involving conspiracy, forgery and impersonation. Adeyemi has denied wrongdoing.
Among the 13 officials recommended for administrative action are Mimi Abu of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation; Rosemary Achem of the Budget Office; Patricia Akhigbe of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning; and several officials of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation. An official of the National Information Technology Development Agency, Ogunbade Habeebat Ajibola, is also on the list.
The investigation found that Adeyemi allegedly used documents presented as presidential instruments to secure office accommodation, seek self-accounting status and facilitate the opening of Central Bank of Nigeria accounts for the purported agency. Government institutions reportedly processed some of the requests without independently confirming whether the PFIPC was legally established.
ICPC has also called for further investigation into the roles of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Finance, as well as officials and individuals linked to Unity Bank accounts allegedly associated with the organisation. The commission recommended an examination of Adeyemi’s bank accounts and other sources of funds he claimed to have obtained as loans.
The case has exposed weaknesses in the verification systems across government institutions. ICPC said stronger checks are needed to authenticate official documents and prevent entities without legal backing from accessing government offices, public resources and financial systems.
The Presidency has maintained that the PFIPC and Adeyemi’s purported appointment were never authorised under Tinubu’s administration. Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila, who had described the agency as fake, was cleared of wrongdoing by the ICPC investigation.
The scandal has since widened following the discovery of another suspected fake agency, the National Brands Development and Made in Nigeria Special Project Office. Tinubu ordered the suspension of three permanent secretaries and the arrest of its alleged promoter, George Buchi Nwabueze. ICPC said the development raised further questions about how forged government documents could pass through multiple layers of the federal bureaucracy.
