Says CBN account opened without Accountant-General’s final clearance
-Suspect created dummy FCT agencies via forged presidency letters
The Presidency has cleared the Chief of Staff to the President, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, of bribery allegations, revealing that his accuser is an imposter who forged official documents and ran a fictitious government agency.
The accuser, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, who claimed to be the Director-General of a “Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council/Presidential Economic Advisory Council,” had accused Gbajabiamila of demanding a N27.3 billion bribe from the agency’s take-off grant.
Adeyemi also alleged that he paid N400 million by proxy to Gbajabiamila to secure his appointment, with an outstanding balance of N200 million. He subsequently petitioned President Bola Tinubu, demanding an independent probe and calling on the Chief of Staff to step aside.
However, in a detailed statement released on Wednesday, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, dismissed the allegations as malicious falsehoods designed to cover up a massive fraud syndicate.
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According to the Presidency, Gbajabiamila was actually the whistleblower who first alerted law enforcement to Adeyemi’s illegal operations.
“The Office of the Chief of Staff to the President first blew the whistle on the existence of the illegal agency, following complaints from the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) that another body was functioning at cross-purposes with it,” Onanuga said.
On October 17, Gbajabiamila petitioned the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police Force to investigate the activities of “fraudsters and imposters” forging appointment letters from his office.
The petition included copies of the forged appointment letters, unauthorized requests for diplomatic notes (note verbale) sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and promotional photos taken from the fake agency’s website.
The illegal agency had already raised alarms within diplomatic circles. On October 15, Ambassador Anderson Madubuike of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote to the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the Chief of Staff, requesting clarification on Adeyemi’s status.
This request followed an unauthorized meeting Adeyemi hosted with foreign ambassadors at the Wells Carlton Hotel in Asokoro, Abuja, on October 10.
Subsequent inquiries by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) confirmed that no such agency existed and that the Chief of Staff has no constitutional powers to issue appointment letters, which remain the exclusive preserve of the OSGF.
### **Police Uncover 34 Bank Accounts, CBN Deception**
A police investigation subsequently exposed the scale of Adeyemi’s fraudulent operations.
Detectives established that the agency Adeyemi claimed to head was entirely fictitious, and that he had forged his appointment letter along with various government documents recovered during searches of his home and office.
The police also discovered that Adeyemi operated 34 separate bank accounts. Nine of these accounts were opened in the names of fake entities, including the “FCT Investment Promotion Agency and the Public Private Partnership (FIPA-PPP)” and the “FCT Investment Promotion Act.”
Most notably, investigators revealed that Adeyemi used forged credentials to mislead the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, allowing him to open a corporate account at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The police, however, confirmed that no government funds were successfully transferred into the account before the fraud was detected.
The Presidency added that Adeyemi’s operations were part of a broader scheme to secure U.S. visas for himself and his cohorts under false pretenses. Security agencies are expected to proceed with prosecution.
