The head of a disowned Nigerian government agency has claimed that the ₦400m (£160,000; $210,000) he allegedly paid to secure his job was borrowed, and that his lenders have now reported him to the country’s anti-graft agency.
Adeniyi Adeyemi, the Director-General of the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), made the claims during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday night.
“I borrowed this money. In fact, those that I borrowed this money from have reported to the EFCC,” Mr. Adeyemi said. “They have written to the EFCC, asking me to refund their money.”
The claims follow his earlier allegations that the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, had accepted the money through a proxy to facilitate the appointment—an accusation Mr. Gbajabiamila’s lawyers have vehemently denied, threatening a ₦10bn defamation lawsuit.
Mr. Adeyemi later admitted to an activist that he had never met the chief of staff in person and could not verify the identity of the person he spoke to on the phone.
An audacious operation
The presidency officially disowned the PFIPC in June, branding it a “fictitious” agency and labelling Mr Adeyemi an impostor.
A subsequent police investigation alleged that Mr. Adeyemi had forged his presidential appointment letter, operated the fake council from the Federal Secretariat in Abuja, and maintained 34 bank accounts—nine of which were opened under the names of non-existent government bodies.
Despite the government’s stance, questions have arisen over how the agency operated so openly. Mr. Adeyemi maintains he hosted foreign delegations and met with various ministries during his tenure.
Furthermore, the disowned council was allocated more than ₦1.3bn in Nigeria’s official 2026 national budget, raising serious questions about parliamentary oversight.
‘I am not fleeing’
During his television appearance, Mr. Adeyemi described the government’s handling of the situation as “very, very unfortunate” and accused officials of attempting to embarrass him.
He also dismissed media reports suggesting he was working with a US lobbying firm to seek political asylum abroad.
“They pulled my social media handle down, and they still reported that I was about to run away out of Nigeria,” he said. “I’m still in Nigeria. I’m not going anywhere.”
President Bola Tinubu has ordered the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to conduct a thorough 30-day investigation into how the fraudulent agency was established.
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