A video of Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, the man linked to the alleged ₦1.3bn “ghost agency” scandal, resurfaced online on Monday as the controversy over the supposed government agency grew.
The video, recorded at a press conference in late June 2026, showed Adeyemi defending his claim as head of the alleged Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council while challenging the position of the Presidency and the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, led by Femi Gbajabiamila.
During the briefing, Adeyemi questioned how an agency the Presidency described as non-existent could appear in official budget documents.
He said “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 the agency’s appearance in the budget raised concerns about the process behind it.
“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 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 alleged that Gbajabiamila demanded 48 per cent of the agency’s proposed ₦27.4bn take-off grant, including an alleged request for ₦12.5bn.
See video here.
The Presidency has repeatedly denied the claims. The Office of the Chief of Staff said the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council has no legal backing and was never created by the Federal Government.
The Presidency also accused Adeyemi of forging official documents, including appointment letters carrying the names and signatures of senior officials, to present himself as the council’s Director-General. Authorities alleged he operated from an office in Phase III of the Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja, where he met officials, diplomats, investors and members of the public while posing as a senior government official.
The controversy grew after reports showed an entity listed in the 2026 Appropriation Act as the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council received over ₦1.3bn, including about ₦803m for personnel, ₦200m for overhead and ₦300m for capital projects.
Adeyemi is facing an eight-count charge of forgery, impersonation, false personation and operating a fictitious government agency before the Federal High Court in Abuja. While the Presidency urged the public to ignore his claims because the case is before the court, Adeyemi insists he is not an impostor and says the court will decide the matter.
