The facts
On Wednesday, Adeniyi Adeyemi, 38, stood in the dock of the Federal High Court in Abuja, pleaded not guilty to all eight counts against him, and was sent to a remand cell at Kuje. He has been in custody since mid-July. Justice Mohammed Umar adjourned the case to 12 October, when the court will hear his bail application and take steps toward trial.
The state alleges that for the better part of a year, from a second-floor office in Phase III of the Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja, Adeyemi posed as Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, an agency the Presidency says never existed in law. Count one of the charge sheet alleges conspiracy to commit forgery. Six counts allege forgery of specific documents: an appointment letter purportedly issued by President Bola Tinubu and signed by Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila, presidential letter-headed paper, a request for collaboration with ministries and offices across the 36 states, a request for office space, an approval of staff account status, and a conveyance approval relating to the council. Count five alleges false personation as Director-General under section 179 of the Penal Code. Conviction on the forgery counts carries up to 21 years without the option of a fine. Two co-accused, identified only as "Femi" and "Anu", surnames unknown, are at large.
The alleged paper trail is spectacular. Police say they linked 34 bank accounts to Adeyemi, nine of them in the names of fictitious government bodies. An account was allegedly opened at the Central Bank of Nigeria through the Office of the Accountant-General using forged documents, although the Presidency says no government money was moved into it. Reporting on the 2026 Appropriation Act shows more than ₦1.3 billion against an entity matching the council's name. And on 10 October 2025, Adeyemi hosted ambassadors at a private meeting so far outside protocol that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs flagged it days later.
The scheme, the state says, unravelled when officials of the legitimate Nigerian Investment Promotion Council complained about a rival body operating at cross-purposes with their mandate. On 17 October 2025, Gbajabiamila petitioned the Department of State Services and the police over forged appointment letters circulating in his office's name. Police arrested Adeyemi on 27 October at the Secretariat office he occupied. He was released on administrative bail on medical grounds after 23 days, then resurfaced to insist that Gbajabiamila had appointed him. After a fifth failed appearance, Justice Umar issued a bench warrant on 14 July, and Adeyemi was arrested in Osun State. The Attorney-General of the Federation has now taken over the prosecution and will review the facts and the charge.
Adeyemi has consistently maintained that the council exists. He has alleged that Gbajabiamila demanded a share of the agency's take-off grant and that the charge is retaliation, and he claims he paid ₦400 million through an intermediary to secure the post, a claim now the subject of a petition to the EFCC. The Presidency has issued broad denials but has not directly rebutted that specific allegation.
Our take
Give the man his due: Adeniyi Adeyemi committed the laziest and most magnificent fraud in the history of Nigerian public life. He did not hack a server or bribe a minister. He printed letterhead, rented a second-floor office inside the Federal Secretariat, and the entire Nigerian state bent over backwards to pretend he belonged there. Office space? Granted. Bank accounts, thirty-four of them, nine for agencies that also do not exist? Opened. A line in the national budget worth more than ₦1.3 billion? Written in. Actual ambassadors showed up to his meeting. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to be the one to say, hang on, who the fuck is this guy.
That is the part that should embarrass everyone in Abuja. The charge sheet lovingly details every forged document, but none of the eight counts addresses the 34 accounts, the Central Bank account, or the ₦1.3 billion budget line. The state will prosecute the man for forging the appointment letter while politely declining to explain how a forged appointment letter gets you office space in the Federal Secretariat and a line in the Appropriation Act. Somebody stamped those papers. Somebody opened those accounts. The two accomplices have only first names.
Adeyemi says the whole thing is retaliation and that the Chief of Staff wanted a cut of the take-off grant. Maybe. The Presidency denies everything in general and nothing in particular. Either way, the con only worked because the gates of the Nigerian state apparently do not ask for papers. As the man himself might put it, if he were honest for once: "A fictional agency could not have hosted ambassadors on its own. Institutions that fail to check the papers do the hosting for it." He pleaded not guilty. The system should probably plead the same.
