By Ogbeni Olawale Dawodu
The self-acclaimed Director-General of the disputed Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, Adeniyi Adeyemi, has fought back against claims that he single-handedly fabricated the agency, insisting that multiple federal ministries, departments and agencies knowingly processed, funded and recognised the council.
Adeyemi, who is currently in police custody, made the claims in a Sunday statement issued through his lawyer, Festus Akhigbe, while demanding to appear before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the council.
His legal team argued that any report from the panel, chaired by Yusuf Gagdi, would be invalid without his testimony.
“We formally request that the panel issue the necessary administrative clearance to allow our client, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, to appear in person and testify,” the statement read.
“Any investigative outcome or final legislative report produced without affording our client a direct hearing would be fundamentally flawed, incomplete, and a breach of the constitutional right to a fair hearing (audi alteram partem).”
The lawyers rejected efforts to paint their client as a lone impostor who conjured a government agency out of nothing, insisting the council enjoyed institutional backing from the outset.
According to the statement, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation acknowledged documents relating to the council and facilitated its office allocation within the Federal Secretariat.
“We, the legal defence team of Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, issue this public statement to set the record straight following recent developments, our client’s current police detention, and the ongoing legislative hearings,” it said.
The statement further claimed the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Central Bank of Nigeria acted on official documentation to issue administrative budget codes, grant the council self-accounting status, post civil servants to it, and open operational accounts on its behalf.
It also alleged that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation formally approved the council’s establishment structure and granted recruitment waivers that allowed 314 personnel to be onboarded.
The defence team added that heads of security agencies attended programmes organised by the council, while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission allocated it a property, requested a processing fee, and presented it with a plaque of recognition.
“If the SGF, the Accountant-General, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Head of Service, the Budget Office, the EFCC, the National Assembly, and the heads of Nigeria’s primary security architecture all verified, processed, funded, and officially interacted with this agency over an extended period, how can a single citizen, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, be held uniquely responsible for failing to detect what the entire apparatus of the State validated?” the statement queried.
“It is an administrative impossibility for an unassisted individual to mislead every arm of the Federal Government simultaneously without official, high-level institutional sanction.”
The defence insisted Adeyemi was being made a scapegoat to cover up “deep-seated institutional lapses, procedural breakdowns and internal approvals within the government structure,” and called for a broader probe involving civil society, legal experts and independent observers to audit the council’s full paper trail across all affected MDAs.
“While we note the ongoing proceedings by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee and investigating bodies, justice cannot be served by prosecuting the mouthpiece while ignoring the state machinery that built, budgeted, and bureaucratically birthed the entity.
“We reiterate our call for a truly comprehensive, multi-stakeholder panel that includes civil society, legal experts, and independent observers to audit the complete paper trail across all involved ministries, departments, and agencies,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, several heads of agency have appeared before the House committee, including the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Walson-Jack, who admitted her office failed to conduct adequate due diligence before approving recruitment requests linked to the council.
