The Accountant-General of the Federation, Dr Shamsudeen Ogunjimi, has told federal lawmakers that Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew hijacked a State House authentication letter and used it to secure official recognition for a phantom government agency.

Ogunjimi appeared before the House of Representatives’ Ad hoc Committee investigating the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, also referred to as the Presidential Economic Advisory Council. He told the committee that his office processed an administrative code for the council after it received what looked like a genuine State House letter. Investigators later traced the document back to Adeyemi and found that the Presidency never issued it.

Committee Chairman Yusuf Gagdi described the episode plainly. He said Adeyemi “hijacked a letter of authentication” that officials had written to the Presidency, then redirected it to support his own claims. Gagdi’s committee says it now holds 29 fake documents that Adeyemi allegedly produced to build the illusion of a legitimate federal body.

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Lawmakers pressed Ogunjimi on how his office failed to catch the forgery before granting the code that let the council open bank accounts and, eventually, appear in the federal budget. He explained that the correspondence carried State House letterhead and formatting his staff had no obvious reason to doubt. Only after outside scrutiny did his office confirm the letter never originated from the Presidency.

The committee has also obtained the council’s Central Bank of Nigeria account records, which the Accountant-General’s office authorized following the forged request. Investigators want to know how a body with no legal existence secured a functioning CBN account and, later, a ₦1.3 billion allocation in the 2026 Appropriation Act.

Gagdi has instructed the Accountant-General to release two personnel who handled the original assessment so they can answer questions before the committee. He has also demanded twelve additional staff names connected to the file, and he wants the Head of the Civil Service to cooperate with that request.

Police have already moved against Adeyemi outside the legislative probe. The Nigeria Police Force told the committee it filed conspiracy and fraud charges against him at the Federal High Court in Abuja. Officers eventually tracked him to a hideout in Osun State and arrested him after Justice Mohammed Umar issued a bench warrant for his repeated failure to appear for arraignment.

Court filings accuse Adeyemi of forging a Presidential letter dated March 8, 2024, to request land and office space across all 36 states. Prosecutors also say he forged an appointment letter naming himself Director-General and attached a fake signature belonging to the then-Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila. He faces an eight-count charge that includes forgery, impersonation, and felony.

Adeyemi has pushed back publicly. At a June 26 press conference held before his arrest, he alleged that Gbajabiamila received ₦400 million through a proxy and demanded a further ₦200 million to secure his appointment. Gbajabiamila has denied the claim and filed a ₦15 billion defamation suit against him.

The Accountant-General’s office insists the council never held an active CBN account and never received public funds or paid salaries, despite its budget line. The Budget Office has said the entry actually traces back to the previous administration, not the current one.

Gagdi says the committee will not interfere with ongoing police and court proceedings. He calls the legislative inquiry complementary, aimed at establishing facts and recommending administrative, legislative, or criminal action against anyone found responsible.

The House gave the Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, 48 hours to produce Adeyemi before the committee by noon on Wednesday. Lawmakers say his testimony is central to closing the remaining gaps in how a fictitious agency operated inside the federal government for nearly two years before collapsing under scrutiny.