President Bola Tinubu has ordered a comprehensive forensic investigation into the scandal involving the fictitious Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, following findings that additional fake agencies may have operated within the Federal Government system.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Oyedele said the investigation would examine government processes, procedures and internal control weaknesses that allowed the fake agency and other suspected fictitious agencies to obtain official recognition and access administrative systems.
According to him, the President directed that the review should also extend to the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, IPPIS, to determine whether fake agencies may have led to the inclusion of fictitious employees on the Federal Government payroll.
He said the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Ministry of Finance had been directed to work with other relevant agencies to address the matter comprehensively, covering its administrative, accounting and governance dimensions.
Oyedele explained that the forensic investigation would establish how the lapses occurred, identify those responsible and strengthen government systems to prevent a recurrence. He noted that the fake council allegedly obtained an administrative code and a Treasury Single Account code, although no government funds were paid into its accounts.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, discovered that the case involved more than the initially identified fake council and its purported Director-General.
Idris said the President was informed that at least two additional fake agencies had been identified during the investigation, describing the development as evidence of serious administrative and accounting weaknesses that required a total forensic evaluation.
He said professional audit firms would be engaged to examine the system and identify loopholes that allowed the agencies to operate, adding that the Federal Government was determined to prevent a recurrence of such an incident.
Idris also said the scandal may have predated the current administration, stressing that the President was concerned about the possibility of similar cases existing elsewhere within the public service.
The controversy began after Adeniyi Adeyemi presented himself as the Director-General of the purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, which reportedly operated from an office within the Federal Secretariat in Abuja despite lacking a legal foundation.
The matter later attracted the attention of the House of Representatives, which constituted an ad hoc committee to investigate how the organisation gained access to official government processes, how it allegedly found its way into the 2026 Appropriation Act and whether public officials or institutions facilitated its operations. The controversy deepened following allegations that about N1.3 billion was allocated to the purported agency.
Meanwhile, Oyedele disclosed that the Federal Executive Council approved the signing of Double Taxation Avoidance Treaties between Nigeria and Ghana, Tanzania and Switzerland to expand investment opportunities and attract foreign investments.
He also said the council approved a $1.25 billion financing facility from the International Development Association and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to support Nigeria’s Actions for Investment and Job Acceleration development policy financing.
