Presidency orders probe of cartel linked to ‘fake agencies scandal’

The presidency reacting to the messy and controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council agencies on Saturday ordered probe of government officials linked to the scam.

The self-acclaimed Director General of the PFIPC, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi who is being prosecuted has maintained innocence as he insisted that due process was followed from the Office of the Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation,.George Akume.

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Adeyemi was accused of forging documents to get the fictitious agencies created under the presidency

But in a statement by the Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, through his verified X handle on Saturday said investigators must go beyond Adeyemi and expose the suspicious cartel that allegedly enabled him to operate for an extended period.

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Ajayi called on the security agencies and the anti-graft bodies to wade in and investigate the circumstances behind the scam, suggested that the presidency was embarrassed at the development lately.

However, Ajayi maintained that it was government that uncovered the alleged fraud, thereby drawing attention to those debating the development, hence, it was important to unveils the rogues behind the agencies.

He revealed that staff of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, working with officers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, first uncovered the inconsistencies in Adeyemi’s operations and blew the whistle .

“Contrary to the anything-goes narrative being promoted, it was the system itself that raised the red flag and dealt with it administratively,” Ajayi said.

He, however, acknowledged that the suspect could not have operated for long without help from insiders.

“What is not in doubt is that internal collaborators enabled Adeyemi to get this far. That is precisely what investigators from the DSS, the Police and the EFCC must now unravel.

“The criminal network within the affected institutions must be dismantled and everyone found to have played a role should be arrested and prosecuted,” he said.

The Presidency had earlier disowned the disowned the two organisations, insisting that they did not exist as government agencies.

It also maintained that the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, neither authorised Adeyemi’s activities nor had any connection with them.

Ajayi accused Adeyemi of attempting to drag Gbajabiamila into the controversy as a diversionary tactic.

“In Nigeria, the easiest and most believable allegation anyone can throw at a public officer is corruption.

“Once that accusation is thrown into the mix, the water is polluted, the lines are blurred and everyone is kept busy arguing over distractions rather than the real issues,” he wrote.

He described Adeyemi as “an irredeemable con artist” who was using allegations against the Chief of Staff as “his last straw” to avoid criminal liability.

The Presidency insisted that the case should not be framed as evidence of complicity at the highest levels of government, but as an alleged fraud uncovered by the system itself.

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