Presidency Sources Blame Failed Checks For PFIPC Scandal

Sources in the Presidency and civil service have explained how the alleged Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) scandal escaped government checks through an undetected forged appointment letter.

A Presidency source who spoke with Punch said the fraud succeeded because several institutions failed to carry out proper due diligence.

“The mistake came from several areas, the House of Representatives, the Head of Service, the Budget Office. Most of them did not do due diligence. But you see where you can’t readily blame all of them is what we call grundnorm. There is a foundation. The appointment letter was fake. It was invalid,” the source said.

The source explained that appointments into agencies under the Presidency are made by the President, while appointment letters are issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

The source said, “In government, the way it runs is that it is the President, not the Chief of Staff, who appoints. The letter of appointment is then issued by the SGF.

“Everyone who has ever been appointed by this President passed through a specific process. If your parastatal is directly under the Presidency, the SGF makes a memo to the President and the President approves the memo.

“The SGF then issues you a letter of appointment. For those in ministries, he minutes it to the relevant minister, who minutes it to the Permanent Secretary, who then gives it to the appointee. With that letter, you can enter the government payroll.

“The Chief of Staff has never appointed anyone at that level. All DGs and Permanent Secretaries, their appointments are from the President.”

Forged Letter Gave Legitimacy – Official

A senior civil servant said Adeniyi Adeyemi Mathew allegedly exploited a bureaucratic loophole after presenting a forged letter bearing the name of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila.

The official said, “Where Adeniyi scammed everyone was that he forged a letter with the signature of the Chief of Staff, which was not even his signature because it was forged. It was not Gbajabiamila’s signature. The Chief of Staff cannot make such an appointment.

“Adeniyi took that fake letter, falsely signed by Gbajabiamila, to the civil service headquarters and said ‘please refer to my appointment letter attached.’ He arranged his terms of reference where he stated that he needed an office.

“The problem is, the President’s letter to the SGF or minister is not usually attached to such documentation, you are just expected to attach the appointment letter. But they were supposed to know that the Chief of Staff doesn’t appoint anyone. That was the loophole.”

Secretariat Office Strengthened Alleged Scam

The official said Adeyemi’s allocation of office space at the Federal Secretariat gave the alleged agency an appearance of legitimacy.

“Once you have an office there, it confers a very high level of legitimacy on you. You can meet big guests there. He had a letterhead and even a website. Once he established that office at the Federal Secretariat, every other thing followed. Nobody tried to do the needful anymore until someone raised the alarm,” the official said.

The source added that the office was locked after Adeyemi’s initial arrest and later reallocated, although he allegedly continued operating elsewhere.

“The man was still running the scam after he left the secretariat, but he doesn’t use that place anymore,” the source said.

A second Presidency source said the matter was first flagged by officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, who noticed that the disputed council was encroaching on their statutory mandate.

The source said, “The issue first came up from the NIPC in October last year. It started like inter-agency rivalry. That was how they saw it at the time because this fake agency was now overlapping into the mandate of the NIPC. The following day, it was taken to the Chief of Staff, who said he doesn’t know the person, and then he was the one who alerted the DSS.

“At one of the meetings about this issue, the Chief of Staff swore that he has never met the man and doesn’t even know him. And that his conscience is clear. The Chief of Staff didn’t take it lightly. He followed up until Adeniyi was arraigned in court and put on bail.”

Budget Allocation Queried

A third source said Adeyemi might have secured a budget allocation because the alleged agency already appeared legitimate.

The official said, “He probably knows someone in the National Assembly and told them, ‘Please allocate something to us too.’ So it appeared like a government organisation that had a letterhead, an office and other things.

“All of these things, especially the fake appointment letter, conferred legitimacy on him. The whole problem stemmed from that oversight. People have been asking how he found his way into the budget.”

The source added that Adeyemi had allegedly violated his bail conditions.

“The police is supposed to pick him up again. He ran foul of his bail conditions. He was actually arraigned in court. There is a big document on him from the police,” the official said.