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‘I’m Being Made a Scapegoat,’ PFIPC’s Adeyemi Tells Reps

The embattled Director-General of the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, PFIPC, Mr. Adeniyi Matthew Adeyemi, has asked the House...

The embattled Director-General of the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, PFIPC, Mr. Adeniyi Matthew Adeyemi, has asked the House of Representatives to issue an administrative clearance to allow him testify in the investigative hearing of the lower chamber.

The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, had at the last sitting of the ad-hoc panel investigating the issue last Wednesday, told lawmakers that the police couldn’t produce Adeyemi before the panel because court clearance was needed to present him.

But in a statement by his legal team late Sunday, Adeyemi, currently in custody, said any legislative report on the PFIPC scandal without his testimony was “fundamentally flawed.”

Adeyemi’s legal team is led by Festus Akhigbe.

Adeyemi’s legal team said their client was being framed as an “isolated, mastermind impostor who single-handedly fabricated a Federal Government agency.”

The legal team said the administrative footprints of the PFIPC indicate a different story from the narrative being portrayed in the public.

The legal team said the House of Representatives must probe the “undisputed institutional actions that created and validated” the PFIPC.

“The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, formally acknowledged documentation and facilitated official office allocations within the Federal Secretariat Complex.

“If these documents were crude forgeries, how did the central administrative engine of the Federal Government act upon them?

“The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, OAGF, and Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, acted on official documentation to issue administrative budget codes, grant self-accounting status, post federal civil service staff to the council, and officially open operational accounts.

“The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, OHCSF, formally approved the establishment structure and granted recruitment waivers that enabled the onboarding of three hundred and fourteen (314) personnel.

“The Budget Office of the Federation and National Assembly processed and vetted documentation leading to the formal insertion of a N1.302 billion allocation in the 2026 Appropriation Act, passed by both chambers of the National Assembly and signed into law by the President.

“Security agencies and anti-graft bodies, heads of major security agencies attended programmes organised by the council. Furthermore, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, allocated a property to the council, requested a N300 million processing consideration, and its leadership presented a plaque of recognition to the council’s leadership,’’ Adeyemi’s legal team stated.

The team said it was an “administrative impossibility for an unassisted individual” to mislead multiple agencies of the Federal Government.

It alleged that their client was “being made a scapegoat to cover up deep-seated institutional lapses, procedural breakdowns and internal approvals within the government structure.

“In light of the ongoing proceedings by the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee, chaired by Yusuf Gagdi, we formally request that the panel issue the necessary administrative clearance to allow our client, Prince Adeniyi Matthew Adeyemi, to appear in person and testify.

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