The embattled Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, Adeniyi Adeyemi, has asked the House of Representatives to grant him administrative clearance to appear before its ad hoc committee investigating the controversial council and the N1.3bn appropriated to it in the 2026 budget.
Adeyemi, who is currently in police custody, also denied acting alone in the creation and operation of the council, insisting that he was being turned into a “scapegoat” to conceal what he described as widespread institutional failures within the Federal Government.
His position was contained in a statement issued on Sunday by his legal team led by Festus Akhigbe.
The request follows last week’s investigative hearing by the House ad hoc committee chaired by Yusuf Gagdi into the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the PFIPC and the inclusion of N1.302bn for the council in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
During the hearing, the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, represented by Assistant Inspector-General Tunji Disu, declined the committee’s request to produce Adeyemi, explaining that he was being held in custody on the strength of a valid court order.
However, Adeyemi’s lawyers argued that excluding him from the legislative inquiry would undermine the credibility of the investigation.
They maintained that any report produced without hearing directly from the principal figure at the centre of the controversy would be “fundamentally flawed, incomplete and a breach of the constitutional right to fair hearing.”
The legal team rejected claims that Adeyemi single-handedly created a fictitious government agency, describing such allegations as implausible.
According to the statement, several key federal institutions carried out official actions that recognised and supported the operations of the council.
The lawyers alleged that the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation acknowledged documentation relating to the council and facilitated office allocation within the Federal Secretariat.
They further claimed that the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Central Bank of Nigeria processed official documents that led to the issuance of administrative budget codes, granted the council self-accounting status, posted civil servants to it and opened operational accounts.
The statement also alleged that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation approved the council’s organisational structure and granted recruitment waivers that enabled the employment of 314 personnel.
According to the legal team, the Budget Office and the National Assembly also processed documents that culminated in the insertion of N1.302bn for the council in the 2026 Appropriation Act, which was eventually signed into law by the President.
The lawyers further claimed that heads of security agencies attended programmes organised by the council, while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission allegedly allocated office space to the organisation, requested a N300m processing fee and presented an award plaque to its leadership.
“It is an administrative impossibility for one individual, acting without institutional collaboration, to deceive multiple federal agencies into taking such far-reaching official actions,” the statement read.
The legal team therefore alleged that Adeyemi was being unfairly blamed to shield deeper institutional lapses and internal approvals within the government.
“We formally request that the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee issue the necessary administrative clearance to allow our client, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, to appear personally and testify before the panel.
“To reach a definitive conclusion, the committee must examine not only institutional witnesses but also the primary subject at the centre of this controversy,” the statement added.
The House of Representatives is investigating the legality of the PFIPC following questions over its establishment and the controversial N1.302bn allocation captured for the council in the 2026 federal budget. The probe is ongoing.
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