The Senate is expected to address the controversy surrounding the ₦1.3 billion allocation to the alleged fictitious Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council when plenary resumes on Tuesday.
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The move is aimed at dousing growing public tension and responding to allegations of possible complicity by persons within the National Assembly in the insertion of the controversial allocation into the 2026 Appropriation Act.
The PFIPC controversy centres on Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Mathew, who allegedly presented himself as Director-General of the non-existent council and operated with documents that gave the body the appearance of a legitimate government agency.
According to sources cited in the report, the scandal may have been enabled by failures in verification across several government institutions, including the Civil Service Headquarters, the Budget Office and the National Assembly.
A forged appointment letter bearing an allegedly falsified signature of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, was said to have been accepted at the Civil Service Headquarters without adequate verification.
The document allegedly helped Adeyemi secure an office at the Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja, giving the purported agency official appearance and credibility for more than a year.
Sources said the fraud could have been detected earlier if proper due diligence had been carried out at key bureaucratic points.
One Presidency source explained that under normal procedure, appointments into agencies under the Presidency are made by the President, with appointment letters issued through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
The source said the Chief of Staff does not appoint directors-general or heads of government agencies, making the alleged letter relied upon by Adeyemi irregular from the beginning.
A senior civil servant who later reviewed the document after Adeyemi’s arrest reportedly said the suspect exploited a bureaucratic loophole by attaching the fake appointment letter and requesting office space.
According to the source, once Adeyemi obtained an office at the Federal Secretariat, the alleged scheme became easier to sustain because the office, letterhead and website gave the council an appearance of legitimacy.
The source added that the office was later locked up after Adeyemi’s initial arrest and reallocated to another official, although he allegedly continued operating from outside the secretariat.
Another Presidency source said the matter was first detected by officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission in October 2025 after the alleged fake council began encroaching on the statutory mandate of the NIPC.
The issue was reportedly escalated to the Chief of Staff, who allegedly denied knowing Adeyemi and alerted the Department of State Services.
The source said Gbajabiamila maintained that he had never met the suspect and followed up until Adeyemi was arraigned in court and granted bail.
On the controversial ₦1.3 billion allocation, a National Assembly source said the entry was not presented as a stand-alone budget item and was not defended before the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service.
The source said it was allegedly inserted along with other items said to have come directly from the Presidency, leaving no opportunity for proper defence or oversight.
“It was not brought in as a stand-alone item. It was done collectively with others that came in directly from the Presidency. So there was no defence or oversight,” the source said.
The official added that the Senate leadership would address the matter on Tuesday to calm tension and respond to concerns about possible involvement of presiding officers.
Civil society organisations have also demanded disclosure and investigation into how the alleged non-existent council found its way into the national budget.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has asked Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, to release certified copies of all documents relating to the consideration and approval of the ₦1,302,978,784 allocation.
SERAP also demanded the names of lawmakers and public officers involved in considering the allocation, as well as clarification on whether the item was contained in the executive’s original budget proposal or inserted during legislative consideration.
The organisation warned that it would take legal action if the information was not released within seven days.
The Human and Environmental Development Agenda also called for a public inquiry, saying Nigerians deserve to know who proposed the allocation, which government institutions processed it, and whether any funds had been released or committed.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar also criticised the Tinubu administration over the scandal, saying the controversy reflected a wider pattern of governance failure.
He said the Presidency should order an independent investigation and explain who created the alleged phantom organisation, who authorised its activities and who should be held responsible.
The Tanimu Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party described the scandal as evidence of porous governance, saying if the Presidency’s position that Adeyemi was an impostor was correct, then the government must explain how institutional gatekeepers allowed the alleged fraud to continue.
The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights also called on Gbajabiamila to voluntarily step aside pending an independent investigation, arguing that the allegations on both sides were grave and required transparency.
The Kwankwasiyya Movement said the matter had gone beyond one individual, asking how a council that allegedly did not exist entered the national budget, who processed the documentation and whether public money had been released.
However, the Deputy Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, urged Nigerians to allow the court process to run its course, saying details of what transpired would eventually become clear.
Senior lawyers also cautioned against charging Gbajabiamila based solely on allegations.
Bankole Akomolafe, SAN, said criminal responsibility cannot be based on sentiment or emotion, adding that anyone alleging payment of money should provide concrete evidence, including account records.
Another senior lawyer, Sampson Erugo, however, questioned why only Adeyemi had been charged, saying other persons who allegedly enabled the operation should also be investigated.
Adeyemi is expected to appear before the Federal High Court in Abuja on July 27, 2026, alongside two alleged accomplices identified only as Femi and Anu, who remain at large.
The Senate’s expected intervention on Tuesday is therefore likely to focus on how the ₦1.3 billion allocation entered the 2026 budget, whether any legislative officer or committee processed it, and what steps should be taken to prevent fictitious agencies from gaining access to government structures and public funds.
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