The Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, has alleged that the self-acclaimed Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), Adeniyi Adeyemi, intercepted an official response from the Office of the Accountant-General that could have exposed the alleged forgery behind the controversial agency scandal.

Ogunjimi made the revelation on Monday while testifying before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the PFIPC controversy and the N1.3 billion appropriated to the council in the 2026 budget.

According to him, the Office of the Accountant-General received a request in November 2024, purportedly from the State House, seeking the creation of an administrative code for the PFIPC to enable budgeting, accounting and financial reporting.

Believing the request to be authentic because it was written on State House letterhead, the Treasury approved the administrative code and, on November 29, 2024, sent its response to the State House with a copy to the Budget Office of the Federation.

However, Ogunjimi told lawmakers that the response never reached its intended destination because it was allegedly intercepted by Adeyemi.

“The letter that was written to the treasury for us to give an administrative code was responded to.

“Unfortunately, as events unfolded, it was discovered that that letter did not get to the State House. It was hijacked, precisely by the same man who claimed to be the director-general.

“Because if our letter responding to the request of the State House that an administrative code should be issued had gotten to the State House, definitely the State House would have noticed that the letter requesting an administrative code was never issued by the State House,” he said.

The Accountant-General further disclosed that subsequent investigations revealed that every document submitted by the promoters of the council to secure official recognition was allegedly forged.

“What the fake agency did was to submit a fake Act — so we can call it fake now because we have seen it to be fake — purportedly enacted by the National Assembly, a fake letter of appointment; everything that was submitted to the leadership in the Treasury was fake,” Ogunjimi stated.

He disclosed that treasury officials processed the request because it appeared to have originated from the Presidency, adding that there was no reason at the time to suspect foul play.

The controversy centres on Adeyemi’s claim that the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila, appointed him as Director-General of the PFIPC, a claim Gbajabiamila has publicly denied.

Adeyemi was arrested by operatives of the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) in Osun State on July 14 over the matter.

Ogunjimi also clarified how two officials from the Office of the Accountant-General came to be working with the council, explaining that they had originally been deployed to the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President in 2010 and 2013.

“We never knew. We believed, based on the records available to the Treasury, that those officers were still with the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President.

“It was when all this matter came to light that we got to know that two of our staff were actually working or had been absorbed by the fake agency,” he said.

The House committee is continuing its investigation into the legality of the PFIPC, the authenticity of documents presented in its name and the circumstances surrounding the ?1.3 billion allocation captured for the council in the 2026 Appropriation Act. (The Sun)

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