Embattled Director-General of the disowned Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), Adeniyi Adeyemi, has said the N400m he paid to secure his appointment letter was borrowed money, and that his lenders have since petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), demanding a refund.
Adeyemi spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday night, weeks after he accused Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, of collecting the same N400m through a proxy to facilitate the appointment.
He said: “I borrowed this money. In fact, those that I borrowed this money from have reported to the EFCC. I borrowed this money to pay for this appointment. They have written to the EFCC, asking me to refund their money.
“So, I’m not even here to pay the money back. I borrowed this money.
“Imagine the government claiming I manoeuvre the whole system. It’s unfortunate.”
When he was asked about reports that a United States lobbying firm was helping him seek asylum, Adeyemi said he was learning of the development from media reports, like everyone else.
“I read it the way you read it. Some people call me that they are looking for me.
“I just ignore; because they sponsor a lot of people to bring my social media handle down. So, I don’t really know much what is going on again. I just hear from family and friends,” he said.
He denied plans to flee the country, saying his social media accounts had been taken down and falsely linked to reports that he was preparing to leave Nigeria.
“They pulled my social media handle down, and they still reported that I was about to run away out of Nigeria. I’m still in Nigeria. I’m not going anywhere,” he said.
The PFIPC scandal broke into public view after the Presidency, in a June 11 disclaimer signed by Gbajabiamila, said no such agency existed under the Tinubu administration and described Adeyemi as an impostor.
A fuller statement issued on July 1 by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said police investigations found that Adeyemi forged a presidential appointment letter purportedly signed by Gbajabiamila, operated a fictitious government agency, and maintained 34 bank accounts, including nine allegedly opened in the names of non-existent government bodies.
As stated by the Nigerian Presidency, concerns first emerged in October 2025 after the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission complained that another government-styled body appeared to be operating at cross-purposes with it.
Despite the disclaimer, Adeyemi has maintained that his appointment was genuine and that he operated openly for almost three years, meeting heads of ministries, departments and agencies, and hosting foreign delegations, including the EFCC and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Adeyemi has accused Gbajabiamila of collecting N400m through a proxy to facilitate his appointment, demanding a further N200m, and asking for 48 per cent of a purported N27.4bn take-off grant for the council — allegations Gbajabiamila’s lawyers have dismissed as false and threatened with a N10bn defamation suit.
He later told Nigerian activist, Martins Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, that he had never met Gbajabiamila in person and could not confirm the identity of the person he spoke to by phone.
The 2026 national budget captured the council with an allocation of more than N1.3bn, a detail that has fuelled questions about how a supposedly fictitious agency passed budgetary scrutiny.
Tinubu has ordered the ICPC to investigate the matter and bring out its report within 30 days.