Nigeria’s anti-corruption body, the ICPC, has uncovered two more fake government agencies in the middle of an ongoing investigation into a man who allegedly pretended to head a government council that does not exist.<\/p>\n
The man in question is Adeniyi Matthew Adeyemi. He claimed to be the Director-General of something called the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC). But according to the ICPC, that council was never created by law or executive order, and Adeyemi never got any appointment from the Federal Government.<\/p>\n
ICPC Chairman, Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, shared the commission’s interim findings with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday.<\/p>\n
During the investigation, the ICPC found that the appointment letter Adeyemi presented was forged. The fake council also reportedly took over the offices and facilities once used by the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), using them for illegal activities like impersonation and false representation.<\/p>\n
But that wasn’t all. The investigation turned up two additional fake agencies: the FCT Investment Promotion Agency (PIFA) and the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (PIPA). According to the ICPC, these were created using forged legislative documents and used to open bank accounts for illegal purposes.<\/p>\n
The ICPC also said Adeyemi renamed the fake agency from the “Foreign Investment Promotion Council” to the “Foreign Intervention Promotion Council” and tried to expand its activities to include revenue generation.<\/p>\n
Here’s some good news: the investigation found no evidence that government funds were ever approved or released to any of these fake agencies. Aliyu also said there were no security lapses at the State House or the Central Bank of Nigeria that enabled the operation.<\/p>\n
However, the probe did identify collaborators from several government offices, including the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service, the Office of the Accountant-General, the Budget Office, and NITDA.<\/p>\n
The ICPC has recommended prosecuting Adeyemi, imposing administrative sanctions on public officers who helped the illegal operation, and making reforms to strengthen internal controls in government institutions.<\/p>\n
The report given to the President was just an interim one. Aliyu said investigations are still ongoing to uncover more details and prepare criminal charges against Adeyemi and anyone found to have worked with him.<\/p>\n
President Tinubu has reportedly taken note of the findings and reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigeria’s anti-corruption body, the ICPC, has uncovered two more fake government agencies in the middle of an ongoing investigation into a man who allegedly pretended to head a government council that does not exist....<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t