•Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, acclaimed Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council/Presidential Economic Advisory Council
The presidency today declared that internal collaborators within government institutions who enabled Prince Adeniyi Mathew to operate a fictitious presidential agency for months without detection would be hunted down and prosecuted.
It also urged security agencies to dismantle what it described as a criminal network embedded within affected federal establishments, reports The PUNCH.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, who made the declaration in a post on his X handle, accused Matthew Adeniyi of being an “irredeemable con artist” who is expertly exploiting Nigerian public psychology regarding corruption to shield himself from criminal accountability by dragging the name of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, into his multi-billion naira fraudulent enterprise.
He said investigators from the Department of State Services, the Police and the Economics and Financial Crime Commission had been tasked with unravelling the full extent of the collaboration that allowed Adeyemi to forge presidential appointment letters, maintain 34 bank accounts in the names of fictitious government bodies, host foreign ambassadors and open a Central Bank account, all while parading himself as the Director-General of a non-existent body called the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council.
“What is not in doubt is that internal collaborators enabled Adeniyi to get this far.
“That is precisely what investigators from the DSS, the Police and the EFCC must now unravel.
“The criminal network within the affected institutions must be dismantled, and everyone found to have played a role should be arrested and prosecuted,” Ajayi said.
The aide alleged that Adeyemi is attempting to exploit public anger about corruption to shield himself from criminal accountability by dragging the name of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, into the matter.
“In Nigeria, the easiest and most believable allegation anyone can throw at a public officer is corruption.
“Once that accusation is thrown into the mix, the water is polluted, the lines are blurred, and everyone is kept busy arguing over distractions rather than the real issues,” Ajayi said.
The aide added, “Matthew Adeniyi understands Nigerian public psychology, and he is exploiting it expertly to shield himself.
“He is an irredeemable con artist who is attempting to drag the name of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, into his criminal enterprise. The Chief of Staff is simply his last straw.”
Ajayi acknowledged the systemic vulnerabilities that allowed Adeyemi’s scheme to flourish but argued that commentators focused on the failure of detection had overlooked the more important fact that the same system ultimately caught him.
He said, “Many commentators have rightly pointed to the systemic failure that allowed such an elaborate fraudulent scheme to flourish.
“Daredevil criminals who operate around government institutions with the sole aim of pulling off spectacular heists are common across the world. Some succeed, many fail.
“The part many commentators have overlooked, however, is how that same system eventually detected the fraud and fished him out.
“Contrary to the anything-goes narrative being promoted, it was the system itself that raised the red flag and dealt with it administratively,” the aide added.
Ajayi explained that Officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, the statutory agency responsible for investment promotion, together with officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had identified the anomaly when Adeyemi’s purported council appeared to be operating at cross-purposes with NIPC and began hosting diplomatic meetings without any coordination with or notification to the ministry.
Both institutions lodged formal complaints with the appropriate authorities.
“That is a system functioning as it should. It is a system capable of detecting an aberration,” Ajayi said.
Yesterday’s post is the third official response from the presidency on the Adeyemi saga.
On June 11, 2026, Gbajabiamila issued a public disclaimer alerting the public, foreign missions, financial institutions and multilateral organisations that the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council had no official standing and that no appointment had been made under its name.
On July 1, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, revealed that Adeyemi had been charged with eight criminal counts at the Federal High Court since November 27, 2025, that he maintained 34 bank accounts in the names of fictitious government agencies, had fraudulently opened a CBN account by deceiving the Accountant-General’s office, and that the key witness who allegedly procured his forged appointment letter died in a hotel fire five days before Adeyemi’s own arrest on October 27, 2025.
Human rights lawyer Femi Falana had challenged the presidency, saying it lacked the constitutional authority to exonerate any party in the matter and calling for the ICPC to independently investigate both Gbajabiamila and Adeyemi.
He also demanded an explanation for how N24bn was allegedly budgeted for the non-existent agency and how it succeeded in opening a CBN account.
Adeyemi is due before the Federal High Court in Abuja on July 27, 2026, alongside two accomplices who are still at large.
