The PFIPC scandal is a masterclass in how Nigeria's system enables fraud

Yesterday, the story broke about Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, the man who allegedly walked into the Federal Secretariat in Abuja with a forged letter and set up a fake agency called the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council. He is now facing eight counts of fraud and forgery. But the real scandal is that this non-existent agency got nearly ₦1.3 billion in the 2026 budget, secured an office in the heart of government, hosted top officials, and operated multiple accounts at the Central Bank of Nigeria. This is not about one man's audacity. This is about a system that has no guardrails.

Let me break it down. The budget allocation entered through what sources in the National Assembly call a backdoor arrangement. No budget defence, no committee scrutiny. Adeyemi himself said in his interview with VeryDarkMan that he did not prepare or defend any budget. So who inserted ₦1.3 billion for a ghost agency? The Budget Office, the House, and the Senate all missed it. Then there is the issue of the forged appointment letter bearing Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila's purported signature. Gbajabiamila's lawyers insist he has never had any contact with Adeyemi. Yet the letter was accepted at the civil service headquarters without proper verification. Adeyemi got an office in the Federal Secretariat for over a year. Up until this month, a sign for PFIPC was still up inside the Ministry of Health wing.

But the most damning part is the banking. Adeyemi allegedly opened a domiciliary account, a pounds sterling account, and a Treasury Single Account at the CBN for a non-existent agency. He himself asked the question we should all be asking: Is it even possible to open an account with fictitious documents in a commercial bank in Nigeria, let alone at the CBN? He allegedly operated 34 bank accounts linked to fictitious agencies. The EFCC has made arrests, but the institutions that enabled this have not been named. This is not a story about one man versus the Chief of Staff. This is about a system that failed at budget, appointment, and banking. Until we fix those three points, the next Adeyemi is somewhere forging another letterhead. Who is going to answer for the ₦1.3 billion that walked out of our treasury into a ghost agency?