PFIPC Scandal: State House Denies Initiating, Supporting ‘Fake’ Agency

The State House has said the presidency did not initiate or authorise the establishment of the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC).

The Permanent Secretary of the State House, Temitope Fashola, stated this while speaking before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the operations of the ‘fake agency ‘ in Abuja on Thursday.

Represented by the Director of Administration, Abdulkadri Idris, the Permanent Secretary also maintained that the presidency never requested the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to generate a budget code for the council.

“I want to state that we did not send any correspondence or any request to the Office of the Accountant-General in respect of this council. We don’t even know anything about this council. We never heard about this council until we started seeing it in the media,” he said.

The Permanent Secretary further stated that the State House has no statutory responsibility for establishing government agencies, hence it could not have issued any communication creating the council.

Fashemi also dismissed as fraudulent documents presented to the committee that purportedly originated from the State House.

One of the documents allegedly signed by “Akande Adewale” as Director of Administration and Support Services could not have emanated from the presidency because neither the office nor the official ever existed.

“I presented the list of Directors of Administration in the State House from 2003 to date, and there was no name resembling Akande Adewale.

“In addition, there is no department known as the Directorate of Administration and Support Services in the State House. We have only the Department of Administration. Akande Adewale has never, ever been Director of Administration in the State House,” he clarified.

The State House equally submitted official records earlier forwarded to the Nigeria Police National Cybercrime Centre, including authentic letterheads and a historical list of Directors of Administration to buttress its point.

Consequently, the Committee’s Chairman, Hon. Yusuf Gagdi(APC Plateau), said the presentation revealed significant inconsistencies between documents obtained from the Accountant-General’s Office and official records produced by the State House.

“The State House has denied that it ever wrote any letter to the Accountant-General requesting budget codes. Secondly, there is no Directorate of Administration and Support Services as contained in those documents.

“The Accountant-General responded to an office that the State House says does not exist, while the name of the signatory, Akande Adewale, is absent from all official records submitted to this committee,” Gagdi said.

He described the discrepancies as a major development in the committee’s efforts to determine how official government processes were allegedly manipulated to give legitimacy to the phantom agency.

The State House further denied issuing any appointment letter to the self-proclaimed Director-General of the council, Adeniyi Adeyemi, insisting that appointments of chief executives of federal agencies are political and are conveyed through the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

“If the president approves any appointment, the conveyance is done by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation,” the Permanent Secretary stated.

Also appearing before the panel, the Federal Road Safety Corps(FRSC), said it acted in line with established administrative procedures based on documents and representations presented by the applicants to approve seven official Federal Government vehicle number plates to the PFIPC.

In a memorandum dated 6 August 2026, and signed by Corps Marshal Shehu Mohammed, the FRSC stated that it followed its standard verification process before approving the request.

“The process commenced with the receipt of a letter dated 4 April 2025 from the Office of the Director-General, Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, signed by Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, requesting the allocation of Official Federal Government Vehicle Number Plates. A second reminder, dated 11 April 2025 and signed by the same individual, was subsequently received, making the same request.

“Both letters were accompanied by what purported to be the Agency’s establishment documents, mandate, and the list of vehicles requiring registration. Copies of these documents are attached as Annexures 1 and 2 to this memorandum. Just to let you know, the requests were made using what appeared to be the official letterhead of a Federal Government Agency.

“As part of the verification process, the requests were personally delivered to the FRSC Headquarters by Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, who presented himself as the Director-General of the Agency. In addition, the Corps visited the official website indicated in the correspondence,” the memorandum stated.

According to it, the PFIPC website bore a Federal Government domain. It contained information consistent with that of a legitimate Federal Government institution, including the names of prominent public office holders as members of its Governing Board.

“The correspondence indicated the Agency’s office address as Federal Secretariat Complex, Phase III, Second Floor, Central Business District, Abuja. Officials of the Corps physically visited the address and found the office in operation at the stated location, further reinforcing the impression that the Agency was genuinely established.

“Having completed the foregoing verification processes and being satisfied with the information presented, the Corps approved and allocated seven (7) Official Federal Government Vehicle Number Plates to the Agency.

“The chassis numbers of all the vehicles were verified and confirmed to correspond with the respective vehicles presented for registration before the number plates were issued.

“The allocation of these Official Federal Government Vehicle Number Plates was carried out strictly in accordance with the established procedures of the Corps and after all reasonable verification and due diligence had been undertaken.

“It therefore came as a profound shock to the Corps when it subsequently emerged that the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council was not an approved Federal Government Agency and that the representations made by Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi were false.

“The FRSC has equally commenced immediate administrative processes to retrieve all the Official Federal Government Vehicle Number Plates allocated to the purported Agency and has strengthened its internal verification mechanisms to prevent any recurrence of such deception,” the memorandum added.

In his response, Gagdi queried the thoroughness of the verification process after noticing that the documents relied upon by the FRSC lacked standard government security features and unusually listed President Bola Tinubu, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and several cabinet ministers as members of the council.

The FRSC, who answered no, however, insisted that the Corps acted on the information available at the time, including the operational office, official-looking documents, the government-domain website and verification of the vehicles’ chassis numbers.

The committee subsequently directed the FRSC to furnish it with the current status and location of all vehicles registered under the PFIPC.

Gagdi also announced that the committee would conclude its investigation next Wednesday and directed the committee’s Clerk to invite all relevant agencies to appear for the final phase of the inquiry.

The House Ad-hoc Committee is investigating the circumstances surrounding the alleged establishment and operations of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, including allegations of forgery, impersonation, financial impropriety and abuse of public institutions.