A forged State House letter created a fake agency and nobody noticed

The Accountant-General of the Federation, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, told the House of Representatives yesterday that a forged letter from the State House was used to get official recognition for the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC). This is not a small mistake. This is a breakdown of every check and balance we claim to have.

According to Ogunjimi, the Treasury received a letter in November 2024 bearing a State House reference number asking for an administrative code for a Presidential Economic Advisory Council. They processed it, created the code, and even communicated back to the State House. Nobody verified. Nobody called to confirm. They just assumed it was real because the letter looked official. The council then went on to request self-accounting status, personnel deployment, Treasury Single Account and domiciliary accounts. They even applied for a ₦27.4 billion establishment grant. That grant was rejected because there was no budget provision, but the point is that they got far enough to ask for that kind of money.

Two civil servants who were posted to the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser in 2010 and 2013 ended up working for this fake agency without anyone in the Treasury knowing. Ogunjimi admitted that as far as he was concerned, they were dealing with a new agency. Nobody informed his office that the officers had been reassigned. The CBN opened two domiciliary accounts for the organisation, though they never became operational. So a forged letter, a fake agency, government offices, personnel, and bank accounts — all without a single phone call to verify. How many other forged documents are floating around the corridors of power right now?