• Committee compares signatures, spots forged official documents
• Agencies disown approvals, deny recognising PFIPC
• Accountant-General says response exposing forgery was intercepted
The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the activities of the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) has directed the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to produce the self-acclaimed Director-General of the organisation, Adeniyi Adeyemi, before the panel by 12 noon tomorrow.
The directive was issued yesterday during the committee’s resumed investigative hearing at the National Assembly in Abuja, as lawmakers intensified their probe into the legal status, operations and funding of the council, which the Federal Government insists was never lawfully established.
Chairman of the committee, Yusuf Gagdi, disclosed that lawmakers had uncovered about 29 documents suspected to have been forged in connection with the operations of the purported agency.
Representing the IGP, Assistant Commissioner of Police Bashir Abdullahi informed the committee that Adeyemi had already been arrested and arraigned before the Federal High Court on an eight-count charge following investigations triggered by petitions from the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President.
Abdullahi urged lawmakers to avoid disclosures that could prejudice the ongoing criminal trial but assured them of the police’s full cooperation.
“The Nigerian Police Force investigated part of this case late last year and filed eight-count charges before a Federal High Court. The case is ongoing,” he said.
He explained that police investigations began after receiving a petition dated October 17, 2025, from the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, alleging that Adeyemi falsely presented himself as Director-General of both the Presidential Economic Advisory Council and the PFIPC.
According to the police, further petitions alleged that the suspect used the purported office to obtain accommodation at the Phase III Federal Secretariat in Abuja, sought approval to recruit about 300 personnel, attempted to secure a ₦1.32 billion allocation for the council in the 2026 Appropriation Act, and planned to organise a World Investment Summit under the council’s platform.
A key moment during the hearing came when the committee compared signatures on documents allegedly issued by the Office of the Chief of Staff with verified official correspondence obtained by the police.
When asked whether the signatures matched, Abdullahi replied: “They are not the same.”
Reacting, Gagdi said the findings strengthened suspicions that several official government documents had been forged.
“So, it is not only a letter that was suspected to be forged? We are dealing with documents that include what is said to be a forged Act of the National Assembly in an attempt to establish a fake agency,” he said.
The committee chairman revealed that the suspected forged documents included purported approvals from the State House, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the Federal Ministry of Finance and several other government institutions.
He noted that officials from many of the affected institutions had appeared before the committee and denied issuing the documents attributed to them.
Since the investigation began, senior officials from the State House, the Offices of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Head of the Civil Service, as well as the Federal Ministries of Finance, Justice, Budget and Economic Planning, Foreign Affairs, and Information and National Orientation, have testified before the panel.
Representatives of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, Corporate Affairs Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Code of Conduct Bureau, and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation also appeared before lawmakers.
Most of the institutions distanced themselves from the PFIPC, insisting they neither approved nor recognised its establishment. Several witnesses similarly disowned letters, approvals and endorsements bearing the names or insignia of their offices, maintaining that the documents neither originated from nor were issued by their institutions.
The committee also heard from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, which disclosed that an official response exposing the alleged forgery of one of its documents was intercepted before reaching the appropriate authorities.
Gagdi said the committee had deliberately refrained from compelling the police to disclose sensitive details that could jeopardise the ongoing criminal proceedings.
He subsequently directed the Inspector-General of Police to produce Adeyemi before the panel by 12 noon tomorrow.
“This committee clearly needs the suspected Director-General to appear before it. People’s names are involved. People’s integrity is involved. Institutional names are involved. Institutional integrity is involved,” Gagdi stated.
