The self-acclaimed Director-General of the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, Adeniyi Adeyemi, has fought back against allegations surrounding the disputed agency, accusing several ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government of officially recognising, processing and interacting with the council.
Adeyemi, who is currently in police custody, made the claim in a statement issued on Sunday by his legal defence team and signed by Festus Akhigbe.
He also demanded to appear before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the council, insisting that any report produced without hearing from him would violate his constitutional right to fair hearing.
The committee is chaired by Yusuf Gagdi.
Adeyemi’s lawyers urged the panel to grant the necessary administrative clearance for their client to appear in person and testify before it.
They said any investigative outcome or final legislative report produced without giving Adeyemi an opportunity to defend himself would be “fundamentally flawed, incomplete” and a breach of his constitutional right to fair hearing.
The defence team also rejected attempts to portray Adeyemi as an “isolated, mastermind impostor” who fabricated a government agency without institutional backing.
According to the lawyers, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation acknowledged documents relating to the council and facilitated the allocation of an office to it within the Federal Secretariat.
They further alleged that the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Central Bank of Nigeria acted on official documents relating to the council by issuing administrative budget codes, granting it self-accounting status, posting federal civil servants to it and opening operational accounts.
The defence also claimed that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation formally approved the council’s establishment structure and granted recruitment waivers that enabled the onboarding of 314 personnel.
It alleged that heads of security agencies attended programmes organised by the council, while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission allocated a property to the agency, requested a processing fee and presented a plaque of recognition to its leadership.
The lawyers said the alleged involvement of multiple government institutions raised questions about how Adeyemi could be held solely responsible for the council’s existence and operations.
They said, “If the SGF, the Accountant-General, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Head of Service, the Budget Office, the EFCC, the National Assembly, and the heads of Nigeria’s primary security architecture all verified, processed, funded, and officially interacted with this agency over an extended period, how can a single citizen, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, be held uniquely responsible for failing to detect what the entire apparatus of the State validated?”
The defence maintained that it was “an administrative impossibility” for an individual to mislead every arm of the Federal Government simultaneously without official or high-level institutional sanction.
The lawyers alleged that Adeyemi was being made a “scapegoat to cover up deep-seated institutional lapses, procedural breakdowns and internal approvals within the government structure.”
They called for a broader investigation involving civil society organisations, legal experts and independent observers to audit the paper trail across all ministries, departments and agencies linked to the council.
The statement added, “While we note the ongoing proceedings by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee and investigating bodies, justice cannot be served by prosecuting the mouthpiece while ignoring the state machinery that built, budgeted, and bureaucratically birthed the entity.”
The defence team reiterated its call for a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder investigation into the council’s dealings with government institutions.
NAIJAONPOINT reports that several heads of agencies have appeared before the House committee, including the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Walson-Jack.
Walson-Jack admitted that her office failed to conduct adequate due diligence before approving recruitment requests linked to the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council.
Titilope Adako is a talented and intrepid journalist, dedicated to shedding light on the untold stories of Osun State and Nigeria. Through incisive reporting, she tackles a broad spectrum of topics, from politics and social justice to culture and entertainment, with a commitment to accuracy, empathy, and inspiring positive change.
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