The House of Representatives’ investigation into the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) gathered fresh momentum on Monday after the Accountant-General of the Federation Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, revealed that the purported agency secured official government recognition using a forged State House letter.
Ogunjimi made the disclosure while appearing before the House Ad Hoc Committee investigating the establishment and operations of the PFIPC. Lawmakers are probing allegations that the organisation operated for months on the strength of forged presidential approvals and other falsified government documents despite having no legal status.
The Accountant-General told the committee that his office first received correspondence relating to the organisation in November 2024. The letter, bearing what appeared to be an authentic State House reference number, requested the creation of an administrative code for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council to facilitate budgeting, accounting, and financial reporting.
According to Ogunjimi, the request appeared genuine and was processed in line with established government procedures.
“A letter dated November 7, 2024, bearing a State House reference number, requested the creation of an administrative code for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council to facilitate budgeting, accounting and financial reporting,” he said.
He explained that the Office of the Accountant-General subsequently created the administrative code and communicated its approval to the State House, with a copy forwarded to the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
Following the approval, the office received additional requests from the purported council, including applications for self-accounting status, the deployment of personnel, the opening of Treasury Single Account (TSA) and domiciliary accounts, as well as requests for funding.
However, Ogunjimi stressed that although some administrative processes were completed, no public funds were disbursed to the organisation.
“It is important to note that no funds were released under salaries, overhead, capital, or any form of intervention or special allocation to the council,” he told lawmakers.
He further disclosed that the organisation requested an establishment grant of ₦27.4 billion, but the application was rejected because there was no budgetary provision to support it.
The AGF also informed the committee that while the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) opened two domiciliary accounts for the organisation to receive inflows, the accounts never became operational because the regulatory conditions required for their activation were not met.
The hearing took a dramatic turn when lawmakers questioned how the purported agency was able to navigate several layers of government bureaucracy without raising suspicion.
Responding, Ogunjimi revealed that subsequent investigations confirmed that the letter upon which his office acted did not originate from the Presidency.
“The letter that was received by the Treasury was presented as coming from the State House,” he said.
“That letter was never issued by the State House.”
The revelation reinforced earlier evidence before the committee indicating that forged presidential approvals, counterfeit State House correspondence, and other falsified government documents were used to lend legitimacy to the operations of the purported agency.
Lawmakers also sought explanations for how civil servants originally deployed to the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President eventually became attached to the purported council without the knowledge of the Office of the Accountant-General.
Ogunjimi explained that two Treasury officers posted to the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser in 2010 and 2013 remained there after the office was allegedly taken over by the new council. However, no formal communication was sent to his office informing it of any change.
“We were never informed in writing that those two officers had been taken over.
“The officers themselves also never reported to us that another council had assumed control of the office and changed its name.
“As far as we were concerned, we believed they were still serving in the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser,” he said.
He added that when the organisation later requested the deployment of five additional Treasury officers, only three were approved after the Office of the Accountant-General concluded that the size of the agency did not justify the number requested.
“It was only after this matter came to light that I discovered two of our officers had actually been absorbed by the agency.
“We had no knowledge of it. Based on our records, we believed they were still attached to the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser,” he added.
The committee is investigating allegations that forged presidential approvals, counterfeit State House correspondence, fake Acts of the National Assembly, and other falsified government documents were used to establish and operate both the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council.
The committee had earlier heard from the Nigeria Police Force that criminal charges bordering on conspiracy and fraud had already been filed before the Federal High Court against the self-acclaimed Director-General of the PFIPC, Adeyemi Adeniyi.
At Monday’s sitting, lawmakers also directed the Inspector-General of Police to produce Adeniyi before the committee by noon on Wednesday to answer questions over the alleged forgery of official government documents and the activities of the purported presidential agency.