In 2018, Nigerians were stunned when a sales clerk at the Benue office of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) claimed that a snake had mysteriously swallowed ₦36 million kept in the agency’s vault. At the time, the incident became one of the country’s most talked-about public sector controversies.
Eight years later, another extraordinary story has emerged, this time from the Presidency ! raising even more serious questions about accountability within government.
The controversy centres on the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), an organisation the Presidency now insists never existed, despite appearing to have operated publicly, held official engagements and even secured a budget allocation.
The Federal Government has accused Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew of forging appointment letters, official documents and presenting himself as the Director-General of the PFIPC and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), both of which the Presidency says are fictitious organisations. He is currently facing criminal charges, while maintaining that his appointment was legitimate.
However, the controversy has shifted public attention beyond the criminal allegations to a broader question: If the agency truly did not exist, how did it appear to function as though it were an official government body?
Documents reviewed by several media organisations indicate that the PFIPC appeared in Nigeria’s 2026 Appropriation Act with a capital allocation of about ₦1.3 billion under the State House budget. Although legal experts note that inclusion in the budget does not automatically create a government agency, its appearance has raised concerns about how it passed through the budgeting and approval process without being flagged.
The alleged council reportedly operated from an office within the Federal Secretariat in Abuja, organised meetings involving Nigerian and foreign officials, sought diplomatic support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and projected itself as a recognised presidential institution before security agencies launched an investigation.
The Presidency has insisted that it was the Office of the Chief of Staff that first alerted security agencies after complaints that the purported council was operating alongside legitimate government institutions. Investigators later concluded that the organisation did not legally exist and that documents used to support its activities were allegedly forged.
Despite the government’s position, many Nigerians continue to ask how a supposedly non-existent agency was able to obtain office space, engage with diplomats, appear in official budget documents and operate publicly for months without earlier intervention.
With the matter now before the Federal High Court, the legal proceedings are expected to determine the authenticity of the documents, the legitimacy of the appointments, and whether any public officials played a role in giving the alleged agency an appearance of official recognition.
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