Before the Presidency publicly disowned the body, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, who claims to be the Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, had openly defended the agency and questioned officials over its status.
A video from a press conference held in late June 2026 resurfaced on Monday as the controversy surrounding the alleged ₦1.3 billion “ghost agency” gathered fresh attention.
During the briefing, Adeyemi insisted that he legitimately headed the council and challenged statements from the Presidency and the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, led by Femi Gbajabiamila, which had denied the agency’s existence.
He questioned how an organisation described as non-existent could have been included in official federal budget documents.
According to him, the national budget undergoes several stages of preparation and review before it is approved.
“The national budget does not emerge in isolation. It passes through multiple layers of technical drafting, executive coordination, ministerial inputs, Budget Office review, and finally legislative scrutiny by both chambers of the National Assembly,” he said.
Adeyemi argued that the appearance of the agency in official records raised serious concerns about the credibility of the budgeting process.
He asked, “At what stage did references to a non-existent agency allegedly find their way into official documents? And if those references are genuinely contained in government records, what does that say about the integrity of the process that produced and approved them?”
He also claimed that the council operated several accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria, including a domiciliary account, a pound sterling account and a Treasury Single Account.
He questioned whether it would be possible for a fictitious organisation to open such accounts, particularly with the nation’s apex bank.
In addition, Adeyemi alleged that Gbajabiamila demanded 48 per cent of the council’s proposed ₦27.4 billion take-off grant, claiming the request amounted to about ₦12.5 billion.
The Presidency has repeatedly rejected those allegations.
Officials in the Office of the Chief of Staff maintain that the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council has no legal foundation and was never created by the Federal Government.
The Presidency further accused Adeyemi of forging official documents, including appointment letters bearing the names and signatures of senior government officials, to present himself as the council’s Director-General.
Authorities also alleged that he operated from an office within Phase III of the Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja, where he reportedly met with government officials, diplomats, foreign investors and members of the public while posing as a senior government official.
The controversy escalated after reports showed that an entity identified in the 2026
Appropriation Act as the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign
Intervention Promotion Council received more than ₦1.3 billion in budget allocations, prompting questions over how an agency now described as fictitious appeared in the federal budget.
The allocation reportedly included about ₦803 million for personnel costs, ₦200 million for overhead expenses and ₦300 million for capital projects.
Adeyemi is currently standing trial before the Federal High Court in Abuja on an eight-count charge involving alleged forgery, impersonation, false personation and operating a fictitious government agency.
While the Presidency has urged Nigerians to disregard his claims, insisting the matter is now before the court, Adeyemi continues to maintain that he is the legitimate head of the council and says the judiciary will ultimately decide the case.
Watch Video:
