‘Phantom’ council: My life in danger, says Gbajabiamila accuser

Adeniyi Adeyemi, the man accused of forging government appointment letters and parading himself as Director-General of a controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) and Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), said his life was under threat.

The president’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, had on June 11, announced that the council did not exist under the Tinubu administration.

The claim was challenged by Adeyemi, who called on President Bola Tinubu to set up an independent panel to investigate the matter.

Checks revealed that the council was allocated N1.3 billion in the 2026 budget.

Adeyemi also reportedly operates from an office at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja.

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He alleged that the dispute arose after he refused to surrender 48 per cent of the agency’s take-off grant.

He further claimed he paid N400 million to secure his appointment and still owed a balance of N200 million.

The Presidency absolved Gbajabiamila of complicity.

In a statement on Wednesday, presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga tagged Adeyemi a “con artist” who was investigated by security agencies and vowed that he would have his day in court.

Onanuga said police had charged Mr Adeyemi and two other defendants with eight counts at the Federal High Court. He said the case, filed on 27 November 2025, is scheduled for a hearing on 27 July.

The Presidency did not address Adeyemi’s bribery allegations against Gbajabiamila.

Speaking with Premium Times on Thursday, Adeyemi denied wrongdoing and said the government’s actions amounted to a “defence mechanism” against him.

“You know the government we have. They are just playing a defence mechanism to shut me up. My organisation was set up in 2024,” he said.

Mr Adeyemi said the presidency is on trying to silence him.

“They are now after my life. I have gone into hiding. I’m underground,” he said.

“I don’t consider myself safe,” he added.

‘Council granted waiver to recruit 300 staff members’

Meanwhile, The Cable reports that the federal government granted a waiver to the controversial council to recruit 300 members of staff in August 2025.

Mimi Abu, director, organisation design and development, in the office of the head of the civil service of the federation, conveyed the government’s approval for recruitment in a letter dated August 7, 2025.

The waiver was necessary because of the federal government’s embargo on general civil service recruitment.

In the two-page letter conveying the waiver, which was copied to the office of the secretary-general of the federation, Abu said the PFIPC had been approved to recruit 10 directors on grade level (GL) 17 and 20 assistant directors on GL15.

There was also approval for the recruitment of 44 administrative officers, with 20 on GL08, 15 on GL09, four on GL12 and five on GL14.

“This approval is based on and limited to the 2025 Approved Establishment position of the Agency, which covers the proposed recruitment,” Abu wrote in the letter.

“You are please advised to: (a) obtain the clearance of the Budget Office of the Federation in line with the provisions of the extant circular issued by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation before the recruitment; (b) adhere to extant rules including the Federal Character principle while filling the vacancies; and (c) ensure that 5% of the recruitment is allocated to persons living with disabilities.

“Kindly note that: (a) on no account should the approval be varied or exceeded, in order not to increase the personnel costs unduly; (b) the officials of this office are required to be present during the exercise to ensure compliance with the waiver; and (c) the list of candidates who are successful in the engagement exercise should be forwarded to this Office for record purposes.”

Atiku: Onanuga’s defence generates more questions than answers

Former Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has accused the Presidency of attempting to explain away the scandal surrounding the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).

In a statement issued on Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the response by Onanuga was not a defence of the government but a public confession of institutional collapse.

He said: “There is an African proverb which says that ‘the man who points at the moon should not have blood on his finger.’ A government cannot claim to be exposing fraud while simultaneously struggling to explain how that same fraud found its way into the very heart of the Nigerian state.

“What the Presidency intended as damage control has become self-indictment. Rather than extinguish the fire, it has illuminated how deeply the flames have consumed the foundations of governance.

“The Presidency now wants Nigerians to believe that one private citizen single-handedly forged presidential documents, impersonated senior government officials, established an office inside the Federal Secretariat, allegedly opened dozens of bank accounts—including accounts bearing government identities—hosted foreign ambassadors without diplomatic clearance, secured official recognition across several government circles, and all but embedded a phantom agency into the machinery of government without a single insider aiding him. That explanation demands far greater faith than the scandal itself.

“There is another timeless African proverb: ‘When termites consume a tree from within, it still appears healthy until the first storm.’ The fictitious agency scandal is that storm. What Nigerians have witnessed is not merely the exposure of an alleged impostor; it is the exposure of institutions hollowed out by years of negligence, incompetence and impunity.

“Even more troubling is the glaring contradiction that the Presidency has failed to explain.

“On one hand, it insists that the PFIPC never existed and was nothing more than an elaborate scam. On the other hand, public records reportedly reveal that approximately N1.3 billion was appropriated for that very council in the 2026 Appropriation Act, listed alongside the Presidential Economic Advisory Council.”

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