Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), has alleged that a crucial letter sent by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) to the State House was intercepted by Adeniyi Adeyemi, preventing the presidency from uncovering what he described as forged documents used by the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).
Gatekeepers News reports that Ogunjimi made the allegation on Monday while testifying before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the PFIPC controversy and the ₦1.3 billion allocated to the council in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
The controversy has drawn significant attention, with the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, at the centre of the investigation. Adeyemi was arrested on July 14 by operatives of the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) in Osun State.
Recounting the OAGF’s first dealings with the council, Ogunjimi said the office received what appeared to be an authentic request from the State House in November 2024 seeking the creation of an administrative code for the PFIPC to facilitate budgeting, accounting and financial reporting.
According to him, the request was printed on official State House letterhead, prompting the treasury to process it in line with established procedures.
He explained that the OAGF approved the request and issued a response dated November 29, 2024, forwarding a copy to the Budget Office of the Federation. However, he alleged that the correspondence never reached the State House because it was intercepted by Adeyemi.
“The letter that was written to the treasury for us to give an administrative code was responded to,” Ogunjimi said.
“Unfortunately, as events unfolded, it was discovered that that letter did not get to State House. It was hijacked, precisely by the same man who claimed to be the director-general.
“Because if our letter responding to the request of the State House that administrative code should be issued had gotten to State House, definitely the State House would have noticed that the letter requesting for administrative code was never issued by the State House.”
The AGF further told lawmakers that the treasury later discovered that all the documents submitted by the council’s promoters were allegedly forged.
“What the fake agency did was to submit a fake Act — so we can call it fake now because we have seen it to be fake — purportedly enacted by the National Assembly, a fake letter of appointment; everything that was submitted to the leadership in treasury was fake,” he said.
Ogunjimi maintained that treasury officials acted in good faith because the documents appeared to have originated from the presidency.
“And so, probably they (OAGF) did not realise that it was fake, and because it was coming from State House, the approval was given for the administrative code to be issued,” he added.
Addressing the deployment of government personnel to the PFIPC, the accountant-general said two treasury officials later found working with the council had originally been posted to the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President in 2010 and 2013.
“We never knew. We believed, based on the records available to treasury, that those officers were still with the office of the chief economic adviser to the president,” Ogunjimi said.
“It was when all this matter came to light that we got to know that two of our staff were actually working or had been absorbed by the fake agency.”
He also disclosed that the council requested the opening of a Treasury Single Account (TSA) and two domiciliary accounts in U.S. dollars and British pounds with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to process foreign investment transactions and preparations for a proposed world investment summit.
According to Ogunjimi, while the domiciliary accounts were approved strictly for inflows, the request for a TSA was rejected. He added that the accounts never became operational because the council failed to satisfy additional requirements.
Meanwhile, the House committee has directed the Inspector-General of Police, through the Intelligence Response Team, to produce Adeyemi before lawmakers on Wednesday for questioning as the investigation continues.
