The last is yet to be held about the House of Representatives investigations into the establishment and operations of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PEAC/PFIFC), as the State House Thursday distanced itself from the ‘fake’ director general, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi denying it never wrote to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) demanding the creation of a budget code for the agency.

The Permanent Secretary, State House, Temitope Fashedemi, represented by the Director of Administration, AbdulKadir Idris, who made the denial while testifying before the Hon. Yusuf Gagdi-led Ad hoc Committee Investigating the matter, clarified that no official of the Presidency requested the Accountant-General to generate a budget code for the council.

He disclosed that the existence of the agency was unknown to the State House until media reports blew it open.

Fashedemi told the probe committee that “We did not send any correspondence or request to the Office of the Accountant-General for this council. We do not even know anything about this council. We never heard about this council until we started seeing it in the media”.

Continuing, the director said, “We did not seek approval or justification for creating the PFIFC. We never heard about the council until the issue came up in the media”.

He explained that the State House became aware of the case on July 6, when its officials were invited by the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre over documents allegedly emanating from the Presidency.

He said one of the documents presented to the State House was purportedly signed by one Adewale Akanbi as State House Director of Administration and Support Services, denying that no such official ever existed in the State House, adding that there was nothing like the Department of Administration and Support Services.

To prove his point, the director submitted a comprehensive list of all Directors of Administration in the State House from 2003 to date to demonstrate that no such individual had ever occupied the office.

Confirming that the letters were forged, the director explained that most features on the letterheads used by the suspected fraudsters were at variance with State House stationery, saying, “We only have the Department of Administration. There is no department called Administration and Support Services in the State House. If you look at those letters, you will see there is a great difference between the letterhead we use and the one they used. The forged letterhead even carried a telephone number, which official State House letterheads do not have”.

He blamed officers in the OAGF, who processed the budget code. “When those offices received the letters, they should have carried out due diligence. If they could not write to us for confirmation, they should at least have called. They did not”.

He also explained that “A letter requesting a budget code is not supposed to emanate from the State House”.

It will be recalled that the Accountant-General of the Federation, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, had last week told the probe committee that his office received a letter dated November 7, 2024, on State House letterhead requesting the creation of an administrative code for the PFIFC, following which, the request was complied with.

Also testifying before the panel on Thursday, the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Shehu Mohammed, confirmed that the Corps had issued number plates to the disputed agency’s official vehicles.

He said, “The process commenced with the receipt of a letter dated 4 April 2025 from the Office of the Director-General, Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, signed by Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, requesting the allocation of Official Federal Government Vehicle Number Plates. A second reminder dated 11 April 2025, signed by the same individual, was subsequently received making the same request.

“Both letters were accompanied by what purported to be the Agency’s establishment documents, mandate, and the list of vehicles requiring registration. Copies of these documents are attached as Annexures 1 and 2 to this memorandum. It is important to note that the requests were made using what appeared to be the official letterhead of a Federal Government Agency.

“As part of the verification process, the requests were personally delivered to the FRSC Headquarters by Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, who presented himself as the Director-General of the Agency. In addition, the Corps visited the official website indicated in the correspondence. The website bore a Federal Government domain and contained information consistent with that of a legitimate Federal Government institution, including the names of prominent public office holders as members of its Governing Board. A printout of the website is attached as Annexure 3.

“Furthermore, the correspondence indicated the Agency’s office address as Federal Secretariat Complex, Phase III, Second Floor, Central Business District, Abuja. Officials of the Corps physically visited the address and found the office in operation at the stated location, further reinforcing the impression that the Agency was genuinely established.

“Having completed the foregoing verification processes and being satisfied with the information presented, the Corps approved and allocated seven (7) Official Federal Government Vehicle Number Plates to the Agency as follows:

“The chassis numbers of all the vehicles were verified and confirmed to correspond with the respective vehicles presented for registration before the number plates were issued”.

He insisted that “The allocation of these Official Federal Government Vehicle Number Plates was carried out strictly in accordance with the established procedures of the Corps and after all reasonable verification and due diligence had been undertaken. It therefore came as a profound shock to the Corps when it subsequently emerged that the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council was not an approved Federal Government Agency and that the representations made by Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi were false.”

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