The Office of the Chief of Staff to the President said Wednesday that a man has been charged after allegedly creating a fictitious presidential agency and forging appointment letters to pose as its director-general.
Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew was arrested Oct. 27 in Abuja at an office where police say he ran the sham Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, also described in some documents as the Presidential Economic Advisory Council.
Authorities stated that Adeyemi forged appointment letters bearing falsified signatures and seals, held meetings with foreign and Nigerian officials and sought a U.S. note verbale through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to obtain visas for staff.
The Chief of Staff first raised the alarm Oct. 17, when his office asked the Department of State Services and the police to probe “fraudsters and imposters” after complaints that the purported agency was operating at cross-purposes with the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council.
The Chief of Staff provided security agencies with a purported appointment letter, a request for a U.S. note verbale and photos taken from the group’s website, the office said.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry wrote Oct. 15 to the National Security Adviser and the Chief of Staff seeking clarification after Adeyemi met with ambassadors Oct. 10 in Asokoro without consulting the ministry.
“This act contravenes extant rules and regulations guiding diplomatic practices globally,” the ministry said in the letter signed by Ambassador Anderson Madubuike.
Police searched Adeyemi’s Abuja office and his home in Suleja and recovered documents they said proved the agency was fictitious.
Investigators said Adeyemi admitted that a man named Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola helped procure a fake appointment letter; police later found that Tanimola had died in a fire at an Abuja hotel on Oct. 22. No government funds were found to have been transferred into a Central Bank account the suspect allegedly opened by misleading the Office of the Accountant-General, police said.
Police also allege Adeyemi operated 34 bank accounts, including nine in the names of his fictitious entities, and that he opened some accounts using forged documents. The force said its probe found evidence of criminal forgery, impersonation and obtaining by false pretence. An eight-count charge was filed against Adeyemi and two alleged accomplices Nov. 27 at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
He is due in court July 27.
The Chief of Staff reiterated June 8 that Adeyemi and the group are impostors after the suspect, then on police bail, claimed he had been appointed director-general — a claim that contradicts his earlier statement to police, the office said.
Bayo Onanuga, the president’s special adviser on information and strategy, said in a statement Wednesday that Adeyemi has a history of false representation, including a 2016 incident in which he claimed to lead a purported World Youth Organisation that the United Nations said did not exist.
Onanuga urged politicians and members of the public not to “swallow” remarks that cast blame on the Chief of Staff and to await trial and the court’s judgment, saying public comment is sub judice.