Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, who claims to be Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, denied allegations of forgery and impersonation at a press conference in late June.
In a recorded video of the briefing, Adeyemi challenged the position of the Presidency and the Office of the Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, which have described the council as fictitious.
“How can an agency described by the Presidency as non-existent appear in official budget documents?” Adeyemi asked.
He said the national budget “does not emerge in isolation” but passes through “multiple layers of technical drafting, executive coordination, ministerial inputs, Budget Office review, and finally legislative scrutiny by both chambers of the National Assembly.”
“The question becomes unavoidable: At what point in this process did references to a non-existent agency enter the official record? And if they are indeed present, what does that imply about the integrity of the process?” he said.
Adeyemi also claimed the agency operates several accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“The same acclaimed non-existent agency has a domiciliary account, a pounds sterling account and a Treasury Single Account, all domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria. Is it possible to open an account with fictitious documents in a commercial bank in Nigeria today, let alone the CBN?” he said.
He further alleged that Gbajabiamila demanded 48 percent of the agency’s proposed N27.4bn take-off grant, including an alleged request for N12.5bn.
The Presidency has denied the allegations. The Office of the Chief of Staff maintains that the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council has no legal backing and was never established by the Federal Government.
According to the Presidency, Adeyemi forged appointment letters bearing the names and signatures of senior government officials to present himself as DG of the purported council.
Authorities allege he operated from an office in Phase III of the Federal Secretariat Complex, Abuja, where he held meetings with government officials, diplomats, foreign investors and members of the public.
The controversy intensified after an entity listed in the 2026 Appropriation Act as the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council received over N1.3bn in allocations. The sum comprises about N803m for personnel, N200m for overhead and N300m for capital expenditure.
Adeyemi is facing an eight-count charge of forgery, impersonation, false personation and operating a fictitious government agency before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The Presidency said the matter is before the court and urged the public to disregard Adeyemi’s claims. Adeyemi insists he is not an impostor and says the court will determine the dispute.