That is the uncomfortable truth of the “Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council” saga. Adeyemi has been charged with eight counts of fraud and forgery. But the bigger scandal is not one man’s alleged audacity. It is how a non-existent agency got close to N1.3bn in the 2026 budget, secured office space in the heart of government, hosted top government functionaries from Nigeria and abroad, and allegedly operated multiple accounts.

This is not a story about Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila versus Prince Adeyemi. This is a story about systemic failure. And until the system is properly fixed, it is quite probable that the next Adeyemi is somewhere forging another letterhead.

There are several systemic breaches in the saga that public finance analysts and other commentators have already pointed out, but they nonetheless require restating. There is a failure of due diligence in budgeting. The 2026 Appropriation Act contained N1.3bn for the “Presidential Economic Advisory Council/PFIPC”.
The problem, however, is that PFIPC has no legal backing and was never established by the Federal Government.

Top sources in the National Assembly claim the allocation entered “through a backdoor arrangement” without budget defence. For whatever his statement is worth, Adeyemi, in his interview with social media influencer, VeryDarkMan, from his hideout, said he was detained for 23 days while the budget was being prepared. “I did not prepare or defend any budget, and nobody went to defend it on my behalf,” he said. That means the appropriation to the fake agency bypassed the committees that should have asked probing questions such as: “Which agency is this?” What is its mandate? Who are its staff members?

Since the rebirth of democracy over 27 years ago, Nigeria’s budget process has been criticised for “insertions” and “undue inflation”. PFIPC is now the clearest example of why that matters. A ghost agency should not be able to get real money. If the Budget Office, House of Representatives, and Senate all missed this, our first line of fiscal defence needs a long, hard look.

There is also the issue of appointment and office verification. Adeyemi allegedly used a forged appointment letter bearing Gbajabiamila’s purported signature and counterfeit presidential letterhead to present himself as DG. Gbajabiamila’s lawyers insist he has “never had any contact whatsoever with Adeyemi”. Yet somehow, that letter was “accepted at the civil service headquarters without adequate verification”. It secured him an office in the Federal Secretariat for over a year. Up until this month, a sign for PFIPC was still up, directing visitors to the “council’s purported office” inside the Ministry of Health wing.

Just think about that. The administrative hub of the Federal Civil Service could not detect a fake appointment. If letterheads and signatures of top government functionaries are that easy to forge and accept, then no MDA is safe. Tomorrow, it could be a fake NCC or NDDC director. And next week, possibly a fake university VC.

The third system failure is about banking and due diligence. Adeyemi allegedly opened an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria for the non-existent agency. Adeyemi himself asked the most damning question in a viral video: “The same acclaimed non-existent agency has a domiciliary account, a pounds sterling account and a Treasury Single Account, all domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria. Is it even possible to open an account with fictitious documents in a commercial bank in Nigeria today, let alone at the CBN?”

He also allegedly operated 34 bank accounts linked to fictitious agencies. Banks and government revenue platforms are required by law to conduct a KYC (know your customer) check. How did 34 accounts get opened? Who approved the TSA linkage? The EFCC has recovered items and made arrests, but the institutions that enabled the financial plumbing have not been named.

But how does the Chief of Staff come into all of this? Where does he fit into, for the life of me? Adeyemi alleged that Gbajabiamila demanded 48% of a N27.4bn take-off grant and collected N400m through proxies.
Gbajabiamila says he has never met Adeyemi in his life and no proxy has acted on his behalf. His lawyers call the allegations “false and gravely defamatory” and have slammed a N10bn suit on Adeyemi. Adeyemi himself admitted in the VDM interview that he never met Gbajabiamila.

Truth is, Gbajabiamila’s office does not issue appointments. Presidential Spokesman Bayo Onanuga had pointed out that much in a statement. The matter of appointment is the prerogative of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, which is the clearing house for all appointments made by the President. Even then, the CoS’s letterhead and signature were also found to have been forged.

It was the Office of the CoS that first “blew the whistle” about the fake agency after the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council flagged it. Gbajabiamila caused a disclaimer to be placed on Adeyemi following which he was arrested by the police and arraigned in court.

It is instructive that President Bola Tinubu has directed the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission to investigate the entire scandal. That is a commendable step. The President also did not leave the duration of the investigation open-ended; he ordered that the probe be concluded within a month. It was also gathered that KPMG may be brought in if there are larger accounting issues to untangle.
Also, whereas the House of Representatives has elected to launch its own investigations into the matter, the Senate has suspended its own probe, rightfully backing the President’s action.

My point is that the investigation and the legal process must run their course. The CoS should not be guillotined, literally. There should be a presumption of innocence until he is proven guilty.
But the more important point is this: even if every allegation against the CoS is false, as it appears to be, the fact that his name and signature could be forged, and used to access government property still suggests some vulnerability in the administrative controls.

All of that has made a reform of the system imperative.
Arresting Adeyemi so he can answer for his serious misdeeds is necessary. However, that would not be sufficient. Stopping there would be akin to treating malaria with paracetamol.

In my view, at least four immediate reforms are required at this point. One is the budget integrity law. No allocation should appear in the Appropriation Act without being scrutinised by the relevant committee and published with a sponsoring MDA, a legal instrument, and a staff list. A “ghost agency” clause should trigger an automatic audit by the Auditor-General.

Secondly, there is a need for appointment verification portal. Every federal appointment letter must be logged on a public, verifiable portal managed by the SGF. MDAs should not accept physical letters without a portal code. That way, forgery becomes instantly detectable.

Thirdly, the Federal Secretariat must have more access control. A forensic audit of all offices, signage, and allocations in the secretariat is desirable. Any office space given in the last three years without SGF/HoS approval should be revoked and investigated.

The fourth, and perhaps more importantly, is the need for financial institution accountability. The CBN and commercial banks must explain how accounts were allegedly opened for PFIPC and 34 other “agencies.” The Bank Verification Number and CAC database should be crosschecked before any government-linked account is activated.

In the final analysis, Prince Adeyemi allegedly gamed the system. But systems are gamed because they are weak. The PFIPC scandal is a stress test, and the system failed at three points: budget, appointment, and banking.

*Rahman is Senior Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Media & Special Duties.

The post THE PFIPC SCANDAL AND THE URGENT REFORMS REQUIRED By Tunde Rahman appeared first on Daily Dates Nigeria.

The swearing-in ceremony, which took place at the President’s office in Aso Rock, was attended by several key officials, including Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi, Principal Private Secretary to the President, Hakeem Muri-Okunola, and Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.

The ceremony occurred shortly before 3:00 pm today.

The appointment follows President Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State on March 18. As part of the emergency measures, the President suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, Ngozi Odu, and all elected members of the Rivers State House of Assembly for an initial six-month period.

In a national broadcast, President Tinubu cited prolonged political instability, constitutional breaches, and security threats in the state as reasons for the drastic action.

Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (Rtd.), who served as Chief of Naval Staff from 2015 to 2021 under former President Muhammadu Buhari, will now oversee the state’s affairs until normalcy is restored.

The post Tinubu Swears in New Sole Administrator for Rivers State appeared first on Daily Dates Nigeria.

Ajibola Ajala allegedly assaulted an All Progressives Congress (APC) Ward chairman over the bags of rice shared among members, donated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, for the ward.

Also, a four-man panel has been inaugurated to investigate and ascertain circumstances that led to Ajala assaulting Ward F APC chairman, Shola Ali, during a leaders’ forum meeting held in the council.

The Council condemned the actions displayed by the legislative member and placed the accused councilor on an indefinite suspension.

The post Lagos Council Suspends Councillor For Beating APC Chairman appeared first on Daily Dates Nigeria.

Gbajabiamila made this declaration on Thursday at a public hearing organized by the house committee on police affairs.

Gbajabiamila stressed that officers who put the image of the police in a bad light must be weeded out.

“Reforming the Nigerian security architecture, with specific emphasis on our policing system and law enforcement, is one of the cardinal commitments of the ninth house of representatives.

“It is a commitment against which our tenure in office will be measured. When the time for assessment and judgment comes, we must not be found wanting. The Nigerian people deserve a police force that they can trust.

“They deserve a police force that acts within the limits of the law and respects the rule of law. We will do everything in our power to meet these expectations.

“Beyond statutory reform, there is a need for concerted efforts to address recruitment and training, funding, and operational priorities.

“These issues are the responsibility of the police force administration and the executive. Nonetheless, the ninth house of representatives will be part of those conversations around effecting changes in this regard, and we will do our utmost to ensure that everything that ought to be done is done and done right.

“There are, let me quickly say, a zillion or gazillion good policemen, in fact, a good majority of our policemen are gentlemen and officers, upstanding professionals but we all know the popular saying that a rotten egg can spoil the whole basket.

The post Nigeria Police Must Respect The Rule Of Law – Gbajabiamila appeared first on Daily Dates Nigeria.