The Presidency has vowed to identify and prosecute government insiders who allegedly enabled Prince Adeniyi Mathew to operate a fictitious presidential agency for months without detection.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, described Adeniyi as an “irredeemable con artist” exploiting Nigeria’s public sensitivity to corruption to shield himself from accountability.
Ajayi said investigators from the Department of State Services (DSS), the Police, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have been tasked with dismantling what he called a “criminal network” embedded within federal institutions.
According to Ajayi, Adeniyi forged presidential appointment letters, maintained 34 bank accounts in the names of fake agencies, hosted foreign ambassadors, and even opened a Central Bank account while parading himself as Director-General of the non-existent Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).
Ajayi stressed that internal collaborators were key to Adeniyi’s success, noting: “The criminal network within the affected institutions must be dismantled, and everyone found to have played a role should be arrested and prosecuted.”
He further accused Adeniyi of dragging the name of the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, into the scandal as a diversionary tactic.
“In Nigeria, the easiest allegation to throw at a public officer is corruption. Adeniyi understands this psychology and is exploiting it expertly,” Ajayi said.
The aide acknowledged systemic vulnerabilities but argued that the same institutions eventually detected the fraud.
Officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reportedly flagged anomalies when Adeniyi’s council began hosting diplomatic meetings without coordination.
This marks the third official response from the Presidency since the scandal broke. Earlier, Gbajabiamila issued a disclaimer disowning the PFIPC, while Special Adviser Bayo Onanuga revealed that Adeniyi had been charged with eight criminal counts, including maintaining fictitious accounts and deceiving the Accountant-General’s office.
Human rights lawyer Femi Falana has demanded an independent probe by the ICPC, questioning how ₦24bn was allegedly budgeted for the non-existent agency and how it managed to open a CBN account.
Adeniyi is scheduled to appear before the Federal High Court in Abuja on July 27, 2026, alongside two accomplices who remain at large.
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