Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, the man who styled himself Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council and whose activities sparked one of the most embarrassing governance scandals of the Tinubu administration, was arraigned in an Abuja court on charges of forgery and impersonation, Punch reported on Sunday, July 13, 2026.
The arraignment followed weeks of public controversy over how a non-existent agency had managed to secure a N1.3 billion budget line in the 2026 Appropriation Framework, open accounts at the Central Bank of Nigeria, and operate with what appeared to be official government correspondence. The prosecution of Matthew is the first formal court action targeting an individual directly connected to the scandal.
Six Charges Filed
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The charges against Matthew included forgery of presidential approval documents, impersonation of a federal official, and fraud. He entered a not guilty plea and was granted bail by the presiding judge. Matthew had previously held a press conference in which he made explosive allegations about Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila, claiming that Gbajabiamila received N400 million through a proxy and demanded 48 per cent of the agency’s N27.4 billion projected funding.
The Presidency had dismissed Matthew as a fraudster and denied all his allegations against Gbajabiamila. The Presidency also said Gbajabiamila’s office was the first to raise concerns about the existence of the fake agency, following complaints from NIPC officials. However, critics noted that the prosecution of Matthew alone left unresolved the question of how the N1.3 billion budget line entered the official appropriations framework.
House Ad-Hoc Committee Continues Probe
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Meanwhile, the House of Representatives’ 12-member ad hoc committee investigating the PFIPC budget line continued its work, having summoned the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning and the Budget Office Director-General to explain the verification process. President Tinubu had separately given the ICPC a 30-day deadline to investigate and report. Consequently, three parallel investigations of the PFIPC scandal are now running simultaneously through the courts, the legislature, and the anti-corruption commission.
