The detained self-styled Director-General of the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, has challenged allegations that he single-handedly created the disputed agency, insisting that numerous federal institutions officially recognised and engaged with the council.
Adeyemi, who is being held by the police, made the assertion in a statement released on Sunday by his legal team, led by Festus Akhigbe. He also called on the House of Representatives ad hoc committee probing the council to grant him the opportunity to testify before it concludes its investigation.
According to his lawyers, excluding him from the proceedings would amount to a denial of his constitutional right to fair hearing and could undermine the credibility of the committee's findings.
"We formally request that the panel issue the necessary administrative clearance to allow our client, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, to appear in person and testify," the statement said.
It added that any report issued without hearing from Adeyemi would be "fundamentally flawed, incomplete, and a breach of the constitutional right to a fair hearing."
The defence dismissed claims that their client independently fabricated the agency, arguing that the council's operations involved extensive interaction with several arms of government over an extended period.
They alleged that the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation acknowledged correspondence relating to the council and facilitated the allocation of office space within the Federal Secretariat.
The lawyers further claimed that the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Central Bank of Nigeria issued budget codes, granted the council self-accounting status, posted civil servants to it and opened official operational accounts based on documents submitted to them.
They also alleged that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation approved the council's organisational structure and authorised waivers that led to the recruitment of 314 personnel.
According to the statement, the council also enjoyed interactions with other government institutions, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which it claimed allocated office accommodation to the organisation, requested processing fees and presented its leadership with a plaque of recognition.
The lawyers further contended that senior officials of Nigeria's security agencies attended programmes organised by the council, arguing that such official engagements demonstrated that the body was not operating in isolation.
Questioning the narrative that Adeyemi alone orchestrated the alleged fraud, the defence asked how one individual could have deceived multiple government agencies if there had been no institutional approval.
"If the SGF, the Accountant-General, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Head of Service, the Budget Office, the EFCC, the National Assembly, and the heads of Nigeria's primary security architecture all verified, processed, funded, and officially interacted with this agency over an extended period, how can a single citizen... be held uniquely responsible?" the statement said.
"It is an administrative impossibility for an unassisted individual to mislead every arm of the Federal Government simultaneously without official, high-level institutional sanction."
The legal team maintained that Adeyemi was being unfairly singled out while broader institutional failures were being overlooked.
It argued that the investigation should go beyond criminal prosecution and examine the role of government agencies that allegedly approved, processed and interacted with the council.
"We reiterate our call for a truly comprehensive, multi-stakeholder panel that includes civil society, legal experts, and independent observers to audit the complete paper trail across all involved ministries, departments and agencies," the statement said.
The controversy surrounding the PFIPC has continued to generate public attention as the House of Representatives intensifies its investigation into the circumstances surrounding the council's operations.
During one of the committee's hearings, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Didi Walson-Jack, acknowledged that her office failed to carry out adequate due diligence before approving recruitment requests associated with the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, a development that has further raised questions about the level of oversight exercised by government institutions.
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