Video of man linked to ₦1.3bn ghost agency scandal goes viral

A video of Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, the man involved in the alleged ₦1.3bn ghost agency scandal, appeared online on Monday. This comes as the argument over the supposed government agency keeps heating up.

The video was taken during a press conference in late June 2026. It showed Adeyemi defending his claim to lead the so-called Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council. He also challenged the Presidency and the Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila.

During the briefing, Adeyemi asked how an agency the Presidency says does not exist can show up in official budget documents. He stated, "the national budget does not emerge in isolation. It passes through multiple layers of technical drafting, executive coordination, ministerial inputs, Budget Office review, and finally legislative scrutiny by both chambers of the National Assembly."

He argued that including the agency in budget documents raises doubts about the honesty of the budget process. "The question becomes unavoidable: At what point in this process did references to a non-existent agency allegedly enter the official record? And if they are indeed present in official documentation, what does that imply about the integrity of the process that produced and approved those documents?" he asked.

Adeyemi also claimed that the agency had several accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria. "The same acclaimed non-existent agency has a domiciliary account, a pounds sterling account and a Treasury Single Account, all domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria. Is it even possible to open an account with fictitious documents in a commercial bank in Nigeria today, let alone the Central Bank of Nigeria?" he said.

He further accused the Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, of demanding 48 percent of the agency’s proposed ₦27.4bn grant. He also mentioned an alleged request for ₦12.5bn.

The Presidency has consistently denied these claims. The Chief of Staff's office stated that the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council has no legal basis and was never set up by the Federal Government.

The Presidency claims Adeyemi forged official documents, including appointment letters with names and signatures of senior officials, to present himself as the Director-General of the alleged council. Authorities say he worked from an office in Phase III of the Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja. There, he held meetings with government officials, diplomats, foreign investors, and the public while acting like a senior government official.

The issue grew more serious when it was revealed that an entity mentioned in the 2026 Appropriation Act, the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, received over ₦1.3bn in budget allocations. This raised many questions about how a body the Presidency now calls fake appeared in the federal budget.

The reported funding included about ₦803m for staff, ₦200m for overhead costs and ₦300m for capital projects.

Adeyemi is facing an eight-count charge for forgery, impersonation, false identity, and running a fake government agency in the Federal High Court in Abuja. The Presidency has stated that the case is in court and urged the public to ignore his claims. Adeyemi insists he is not a fraud and believes the court will settle the matter.