…identifies collaborators in SGF office, Budget Office, NITDA
The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu ( SAN), submitted the reports and recommendations of his investigation of the illegal activities of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Thursday.
Checks revealed that President Tinubu had last July directed the anti-corruption agency to conduct a thorough investigation into the activities of the Council in which Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Mathew paraded himself as Director-General and claimed to be a presidential appointee.
Addressing State House correspondents shortly after his meeting with President Tinubu, the ICPC Chairman declared that his investigation established that “Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew was never appointed by the federal government or any authority government.”
Dr Aliyu (SAN) also disclosed that the appointment letter paraded by Adeyemi was fake, while he broke into the office that had earlier been occupied by the erstwhile Presidential Economic Advisory Council at the Federal Secretariat.
He said, “So, following the interim report, we have discovered that it has been established that Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew was never appointed by the federal government or any authority government.
“Then the PFIPC, which sometimes they call it PFIPC, was never established by any law or executive order or other valid instrument of government, and the appointment letter presented by Adeyemi was completely forged alongside similar documents used to perpetuate the illegal activities of the fake agency.
“If you recall, there was a gazette, a law which was forged as an instrument which he used to support the fake agency.
“What we discovered was that the office used by the fake agency through Adeyemi Mathew, the office of PEAC, was broken; the lock was broken, and he had access to the office.
“That was how he was able to get inside that office, and also the false projection, false representation, widespread impersonation, and a wide range of illegal activities were perpetrated by the fake DG agency, Adeniyi Adeyemi.”
“We discovered that because of the access he had to the former PEAC office, he now changed the name of the fake agency from Foreign Investment Promotion Council to Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, and was trying to encroach into the mandate of some agencies that are revenue generation agencies.”
Speaking on the recommendations in the report submitted to President Tinubu, the ICPC Chairman revealed that the anti- graft agency recommended the prosecution of Prince Adeyemi and “administrative sanctions be imposed on public officers whose acts of permissions, commission and negligence, facilitated the illegal operation of PFIPC/PEAC because our investigation found that some public officers, failed to do due diligence and they failed to adhere with the standard procedures that are supposed to be compliant in their ministries and departments, and that was what gave Adeniyi Adeyemi Mathew the opportunity to conduct this illegal act”
The ICPC Chairman specifically listed the Office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation, Head of Service, Budget Office, National Information Technology Development Agency, as the agencies where Adeyemi had “internal collaborators.”
He further disclosed that the anti-graft agency equally recommended “the need for institutional reform so that the internal control of Ministries, Departments and Agencies be strengthened to block this kind of illegal activity that happened.”
Dr Aliyu confirmed that the ICPC met with Adeyemi in the course of its investigation.
Special Adviser, Media and Public Communications to the President, Sunday Dare, also told State House correspondents that President Tinubu would consult further with the Attorney General of the Federation before further action can be taken
“The briefing was to feed the public with the content of the interim report for transparency’s sake,” Dare noted.
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