A presidential aide, Tunde Rahman, has identified loopholes in the government system that led to the scandal from the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Special Duties made this known in an opinion article he authored.
According to Rahman in the article, titled: “PFIPC scandal and urgent reforms required,” the self-styled Director General of the non-existent agency, Prince Matthew Adeyemi Adeniyi, would not have succeeded but for the loopholes (Read the full article her: https://theeagleonline.com.ng/the-pfipc-scandal-and-urgent-reforms-required-by-tunde-rahman/).
He said in the first instance, Adeniyi did not act alone, adding: “That is the uncomfortable truth of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council saga.
“Adeyemi has been charged with eight counts of fraud and forgery.
“But the bigger scandal is not one man’s alleged audacity.
“It is how a non-existent agency got close to N1.3 billion in the 2026 budget, secured office space in the heart of government, hosted top government functionaries from Nigeria and abroad, and allegedly operated multiple accounts….
“And until the system is properly fixed, it is quite probable that the next Adeyemi is somewhere forging another letterhead.”
Rahman equally identified the failure of due diligence in budgeting.
He wrote: “Top sources in the National Assembly claim the allocation entered ‘through a backdoor arrangement’ without budget defence.
“For whatever his statement is worth, Adeyemi, in his interview with social media influencer, VeryDarkMan, from his hideout, said he was detained for 23 days while the budget was being prepared.
“‘I did not prepare or defend any budget, and nobody went to defend it on my behalf,’ he said.
“That means the appropriation to the fake agency bypassed the committees that should have asked probing questions such as: ‘Which agency is this? What is its mandate? Who are its staff members?’”
Rahman said the PFIPC is now the clearest example of the failure of the country’s budgeting system since the return to democracy over 27 years ago.
He wrote: “A ghost agency should not be able to get real money.
“If the Budget Office, House of Representatives, and Senate all missed this, our first line of fiscal defence needs a long, hard look.”
The presidential aide also identified the issue of appointment and office verification as another systemic failure.
He said Adeniyi allegedly used a forged appointment letter allegedly bearing the signature of the Chief of Staff to the President, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.
He said: “Yet somehow, that letter was ‘accepted at the civil service headquarters without adequate verification’.
“It secured him an office in the Federal Secretariat for over a year.
“Up until this month, a sign for PFIPC was still up, directing visitors to the council’s purported office inside the Ministry of Health wing.
“Just think about that.
“The administrative hub of the Federal Civil Service could not detect a fake appointment.
“If letterheads and signatures of top government functionaries are that easy to forge and accept, then no MDA is safe.
“Tomorrow, it could be a fake NCC or NDDC director. And next week, possibly a fake university VC.”
Rahman identified the third systemic failure as banking and due diligence.
Adeniyi, according to him, reportedly opened an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the non-existent agency.
Quoting Adeniyi in an interview with VeryDarkMan, he wrote: “In an interview Adeyemi himself asked the most damning question in a viral video: ‘The same acclaimed non-existent agency has a domiciliary account, a pounds sterling, account and a Treasury Single Account, all domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria. Is it even possible to open an account with fictitious documents in a commercial bank in Nigeria today, let alone at the CBN?’
“He also allegedly operated 34 bank accounts linked to fictitious agencies. Banks and government revenue platforms are required by law to conduct a KYC (Know Your Customer) check.
“How did 34 accounts get opened?
