Police in Nigeria have arrested Adeniyi Adeyemi, the man who claimed to lead the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) — an agency the federal government insists never existed.
The arrest came just hours after a Federal High Court judge in Abuja, Justice Mohammed Umar, ordered it. The prosecution had asked for the warrant verbally after Adeyemi failed to show up for his scheduled arraignment.
What happened in court
Adeyemi’s absence prompted his lawyer, Genesis Francis, to argue that his client stayed away out of fear for his safety, and that he’d even written to President Bola Tinubu about the threat. The lawyer maintained Adeyemi wanted to remain alive long enough to stand trial.
The judge wasn’t persuaded and issued the arrest order anyway, reportedly telling the defense the court would ensure the defendant stayed alive to face justice. A new arraignment date was set for September 30. A police spokesperson, Anietie Iniedu, confirmed the arrest when reached by phone.
The charges
Adeyemi faces eight counts tied to running the alleged fake agency. Most of the charges involve conspiracy and forgery of official documents, allegedly carried out with two associates — known only as Femi and Anu — who remain at large. A separate count accuses him of falsely claiming to be the PFIPC’s Director-General, an offense under the Penal Code.
He could face up to 21 years in prison without a fine option if convicted on the forgery counts, while the impersonation charge carries a maximum of three years or a fine.
Background on the scandal
The case broke open after presidential Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila publicly disowned both Adeyemi and the PFIPC, with the presidency insisting the agency never existed under the Tinubu administration and that Adeyemi had never been appointed to anything.
That denial triggered a police and State Security Service investigation after Gbajabiamila filed a petition in October 2025 alleging forgery and impersonation. Adeyemi was arrested later that month at an office he’d apparently been operating inside the Federal Secretariat in Abuja. A search of his office and his home in Suleja turned up correspondence with various government ministries and led investigators to 34 bank accounts allegedly connected to him — nine of them opened under the names of supposed government agencies.
Adeyemi has consistently denied wrongdoing through public statements and interviews. In a conversation with activist and social media figure VeryDarkMan (Martins Otse), he denied preparing the fake agency’s budget, which had somehow made it into the 2026 Appropriation Act — saying he was in police detention when that budget was drawn up. He also walked back earlier claims that Gbajabiamila had personally issued him an appointment letter, saying he could no longer say for certain whether Gbajabiamila was involved. Gbajabiamila has since threatened a defamation suit worth 10 billion naira, along with possible criminal proceedings, unless Adeyemi retracts his allegations.
Records show Adeyemi spent 23 days in custody before being granted bail in November 2025 on medical grounds. Since then, the case has been repeatedly delayed — pushed back once when the judge was unavailable for a workshop, once when Adeyemi’s lawyer said he’d been served charges too late, and twice more over claims that Adeyemi himself was too ill to appear.
