By Samuel Akpan

Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, accountant-general of the federation, says Adeniyi Adeyemi hijacked a letter sent to the State House that could have revealed that documents used by the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) were forged.

Ogunjimi spoke on Monday while appearing before the house of representatives ad hoc committee investigating the PFIPC controversy and the N1.3 billion allocated to the council in the 2026 Appropriation Act.

Femi Gbajabiamila, chief of staff to President Bola Tinubu, is at the centre of the PFIPC fiasco.

Adeyemi, the man accused of running the council, claimed the chief of staff issued his appointment letter — an allegation Gbajabiamila denied.

Adeyemi was arrested on July 14 by operatives of the police intelligence response team (IRT) in Osun state.

Ogunjimi told the committee that the office of the accountant-general (OAGF)’s first interaction with the council dates back to November 2024, when it received what appeared to be a genuine request from the State House for the creation of an administrative code for the council.

According to him, the request came on State House letterhead and sought an administrative code to facilitate budgeting, accounting and financial reporting.

He said the OAGF subsequently created an administrative code and, in line with standard procedure, issued a response to the State House on November 29, 2024, with a copy sent to the Budget Office of the Federation.

Ogunjimi said the response never reached the State House because it was allegedly intercepted by Adeyemi.

“The letter that was written to the treasury for us to give an administrative code was responded to,” he said.

“Unfortunately, as events unfolded, it was discovered that that letter did not get to State House. It was hijacked, precisely by the same man who claimed to be the director-general.

“Because if our letter responding to the request of the State House that administrative code should be issued had gotten to State House, definitely the State House would have noticed that the letter requesting for administrative code was never issued by the State House.”

The accountant-general said the OAGF only later discovered that every document submitted by the promoters of the council was allegedly forged.

“What the fake agency did was to submit a fake Act — so we can call it fake now because we have seen it to be fake — purportedly enacted by the national assembly, a fake letter of appointment; everything that was submitted to the leadership in treasury was fake,” he said.

Ogunjimi explained that because the request appeared to have originated from the presidency, treasury officials processed it in good faith.

Advertisement

“And so, probably they (OAGF) did not realise that it was fake, and because it was coming from State House, the approval was given for the administrative code to be issued,” he said.

STAFF DEPLOYMENT TO PFIPC

The accountant-general also addressed the deployment of staff to the council, saying two officials who eventually worked with the PFIPC had originally been posted to the office of the chief economic adviser to the president in 2010 and 2013.

“We never knew. We believed, based on the records available to treasury, that those officers were still with the office of the chief economic adviser to the president,” Ogunjimi said.

“It was when all this matter came to light that we got to know that two of our staff were actually working or had been absorbed by the fake agency.”

Ogunjimi said the council requested the opening of a treasury single account (TSA) and two domiciliary accounts in US dollars and British pounds with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to facilitate foreign investment transactions and preparations for a world investment summit.

He said the domiciliary accounts were opened for inflows only, while the TSA request was declined.

Ogunjimi added that the accounts never became operational because the council failed to meet subsequent requirements.

The committee has asked Tunji Disu, inspector-general of Police (IGP), to produce Adeniyi Adeyemi for questioning on Wednesday.

Source: TheCable