Loading ...ABUJA, Nigeria — Fresh official documents obtained from federal registry trails have cast significant doubt on the Presidency’s absolute insistence that the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) never existed within the machinery of the current administration.
The leaked internal correspondence reveals that the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) received, acknowledged, and formally acted upon official requests submitted in the council’s name months before the executive arm launched a public clampdown on the entity.
The emergence of these administrative trails introduces a severe contradiction into the multi-billion Naira scandal, indicating that despite recent presidential disclaimers labeling the council an outright fiction, top-tier civil service organs were actively treating the body as a legitimate state asset.
The Leaked OSGF Correspondence
According to verified registry records, the SGF’s office formally processed and forwarded a request authored by the council’s self-styled Director-General, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, seeking office accommodation from recovered Federal Government assets via the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The forwarding correspondence, dated November 21, 2024, was officially signed by the Permanent Secretary, General Services Office, Nnamdi Maurice Mbaeri, on behalf of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
Attached to the Permanent Secretary’s dispatch was Adeyemi’s primary letter, dated November 7, 2024, requesting immediate office infrastructure for the PFIPC. Registry stamps confirm that the correspondence was physically received and logged by the SGF’s central registry on November 12, 2024, before being advanced to the anti-graft agency nine days later.
The forwarding cover letter, explicitly titled “Request for Office Accommodation,” informed the EFCC leadership that three distinct government institutions had applied for spatial allocations out of forfeited landed properties. The document explicitly singled out Adeyemi’s application, identifying it under Ref. No. SH/DG/PFIPC/RQ/107.
“I am directed to forward the attached copies of letters requesting allocation of office accommodation from the recovered Federal Government landed properties for further necessary action,” the Permanent Secretary’s directive stated.
How Adeyemi Positioned the Disputed Council
In the foundational letter transmitted to the SGF, Adeyemi presented the PFIPC not as a private initiative, but as a fully operational statutory agency of the Federal Government tasked with driving Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country.
Adeyemi stated that the council “also serves as the resource and coordinating centre for the Nation’s Foreign Investment Promotion activities – a One-Stop-Shop for Investments centre coordinating investment-related activities across ministries, departments and agencies and promoting Nigeria as a preferred investment destination.”
He further assured the OSGF that the entity “facilitates the interaction between public and private sectors, and has an active role in policy advocacy and promotes a positive image of Nigeria as a country that is attractive to foreign investors,” adding that it regularly coordinates with all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to compile vital repository data for potential global investors.
Bureaucratic Oversight or Systematic Web?
The revelation that the OSGF acted as an administrative pipeline for Adeyemi directly complicates the Presidency’s current prosecution narrative. Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, recently maintained that the police had established the PFIPC to be entirely fictitious, asserting that Adeyemi used cloned State House letterheads and forged signatures to build his operational network.
However, political analysts note that the newly surfaced November 2024 document demonstrates that the suspect’s paperwork successfully bypassed rigorous internal intelligence protocols within the highest clearinghouse of the federal civil service.
The document matches Adeyemi’s underground defense, where he has publicly challenged the Office of the Chief of Staff, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, arguing that an agency could not have secured physical offices inside the Federal Secretariat, opened Central Bank accounts, and entered pages 50 and 51 of the 2026 Appropriation Act without systemic executive processing.
With the Federal Government actively prosecuting Adeyemi on an eight-count charge of forgery and impersonation, legal experts state that these leaked OSGF correspondence files will likely serve as critical evidence when the formal trial commences on July 27, 2026.
