The Presidency has dismissed allegations that the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, demanded billions of naira in kickbacks and collected money to secure an appointment for Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, describing the claims as false.
Adeyemi, who identified himself as Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council/Presidential Economic Advisory Council, had accused Gbajabiamila of demanding a N27.4 billion take-off grant for the agency and collecting N400 million by proxy to facilitate his appointment, with an outstanding balance of N200 million.
He also called on President Bola Tinubu to set up an independent panel to investigate the allegations.
However, Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, in a statement on Wednesday, said, “We are aware of the public interest in the matter of a man called Adeyemi Adeniyi Matthew, who has been parading himself as the director-general of a fictitious Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council cum Presidential Economic Advisory Council.”
He added, “The office of the Chief of Staff to the President first blew the whistle on the existence of the illegal agency,” explaining that Gbajabiamila had, on October 17, written to the Department of State Services and the Police to investigate “fraudsters and imposters” allegedly forging appointment letters from his office.
According to Onanuga, the complaint was backed with copies of forged documents and evidence gathered from the agency’s website. He said the Foreign Affairs Ministry had also raised concerns about the agency after Adeyemi met with ambassadors without official clearance.
Onanuga said the ministry sought clarification from the Office of the National Security Adviser and the Chief of Staff, while the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation later requested confirmation of Adeyemi’s appointment status, stating, “This has become expedient owing to several requests from governmental and non-governmental bodies seeking to ascertain the status of the appointment under consideration.”
He said Gbajabiamila had already informed the Foreign Affairs Ministry that he never issued an appointment letter to Adeyemi, stressing that “The Chief of Staff could not have issued a letter of appointment to a non-existent agency. Moreover, the Chief of Staff does not make appointments or write letters, as these are the exclusive preserve of the Office of the Secretary of the Government of the Federation.”
Onanuga further stated, “The police were able to establish that the agency Adeyemi purportedly headed was fictitious, that he forged his appointment letter and the documents recovered in his office and home, that he falsely paraded himself as a government appointee, and that he falsely solicited a note verbal from the Foreign Affairs Ministry to enable him and his staff to obtain US visas.”
He added that investigators also found Adeyemi operated 34 bank accounts, including nine in the names of fictitious agencies, and allegedly used forged documents to fraudulently open a Central Bank of Nigeria account. According to Onanuga, police confirmed that no government funds were transferred into the account.
